Princess

The lives of immigrants who must do sex work to make ends meet receive an eminently surprising, by turns comic and dead-serious treatment in Roberto De Paolis’s sophomore feature. The 19-year-old title character (indelibly, charismatically portrayed by first-time actor Glory Kevin) hustles in a forest on the outskirts of Rome alongside her friend/professional rival Success and lives with a group of other Nigerian women in a makeshift encampment. While making her rounds, Princess encounters a kindly yet misanthropic stranger (Lino Musella) foraging for mushrooms, inaugurating an unanticipated friendship—maybe more?—that could potentially offer her a chance at social assimilation. Eschewing sentimentality and self-seriousness for a more original, playful engagement with its weighty subject, Princess was written by De Paolis in consultation with real-life Nigerian migrant sex workers, several of whom appear as themselves.

We’re excited to introduce a dinner and a movie combo with our Italian programming this June, including Princess. For $30, receive one ticket to Princess and a select menu item at Café Paradiso, located in FLC’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Learn more here.