Princesa
2014 · 12m · México
Directed by David Zonana
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, thriller
Tones: dark, melancholic, tense
Natalia, a seventeen-year-old from an upper-class environment in Mexico City, is the victim of sexual abuse, and the despair that follows leads her to impulsive decisions that reveal a dark side of herself.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects the abuse narrative to cradle its protagonist in sympathy—Zonana strips that away and lets Natalia become something uglier and more honest, which is exactly the kind of moral vertigo most festivals are too cowardly to program.
The film's restraint in form—minimal dialogue, controlled mise-en-scène, editing that refuses catharsis—positions it within a lineage of rigorous European coming-of-age cinema, yet the Mexico City specificity and psychological precision make it feel entirely its own.
There's a single moment where Natalia's expression shifts from victim to agent, barely a flicker across the actor's face, and Zonana holds the camera there long enough that everything about the film's architecture clicks into place.