I have been lucky enough to be able to put my hands on a copy of Princesas with French subtitles. This 2005 movie from director Fernando Leon de Aranoa revolves around sex work in Madrid, where Spanish women complain that business is not what it used to be because of the illegal immigrants who are perorming the same work for rock-bottom prices. One of them, Caye, eventually gets to know Zulema from the Dominican Republic who works to send money to her family and through this friendship she gains a more open-minded view on the situation than her Spanish colleagues.
While I have to give credit to the director for not playing the pure-young-girl-who-gets-swallowed-by-the-evil-sex-industry card, I have to admit that this movie turned out to be quite deceiving, mostly because it poorly developed a great subject. Nowadays migrant sex work and its related issues is a hot topic in all of Europe, but instead of describing the intricacies of race wars and migration status within sex work, the movie focuses on gossip, shopping sprees and romances, not to mention that it contains a bunch of side plots so lightly developed that they add little to the overall story.
The characters are utterly one-dimensional, especially Caye. Perhaps to reach a wider audience, she is portrayed as the stereoptypical stupid prostitute who can’t live a balanced life. She mentions a few times that she is unhappy, but we never get a hint about the reason why. I for one couldn’t believe that she didn’t know who Bill Gates was. She also constantly sees herself through the eyes of her new boyfriend, which makes me wonder how she could remain sane, assuming that she was working in this field for some time. I know from experience that even a slight lack of self-confidence attracts people who will jump at the opportunity to take advantage of you. Another thing that bothers me in this movie is that while the director did not directly equate prostitution with violence, the violence Caye experiences because of her chosen profession is portrayed as something completely normal that Caye has to deal with instead of trying to fight against it. All of this does not convey a very positive image about the ladies working in this industry.
Instead of bringing something new to the discussion about sex work or migrant sex work, Princesas reproduces a lot of the stereotypes associated with the profession. I know that I should not be surprised about this: after all, is there a movie that doesn’t deliver what the viewer wants to see, even though his preconceived ideas about sex work are far from reality?
I feel you have hit the nail perfectly in your take on Caye, I only wish that Fernando Leon de Aranoa had you on his writing staff.
Prostitution has indeed become globalized with economics, politics and cultural norms of each state defining the conditions of migrant sexwork and sex tourism.
Me on Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s writing staff… I barely have time to update this blog with good entries, so I don’t know if that would work.
Jokes aside, even though I know that movies produced by someone from outside of the industry are never accurate about my work, I want to watch them anyway.