TIFF Report: Princess Review

Princess is the story of August - a missionary priest who has given up his vocation - and Mia, his five year old niece, who August has taken custody of following the death of his sister of unspecified causes. August’s sister Christina is better known as The Princess, a porn starlet whose only surviving friends are prostitutes who were raising Mia in the back room of their brothel until August came to claim her. Mia herself is bruised all over her body, old beyond her years, and shows all the signs of having been sexually abused. Plagued with guilt at not having taken Mia away from the pornographers and prostitutes who ruined his sister’s life years before - not to mention the guilt at his own possible complicity in Christina’s having turned to pornography in the first place - and not wanting Mia to ever have to see her mother in that context ever again, August sets out on a mission to have all pornographic materials featuring his sister destroyed, by whatever means necessary which ultimately leads him on a bloody, violent rampage.

The basic premise of a priest on a violent anti-porn rampage - never mind that the priest is animated - immediately conjured images of a riotous, instant cult classic film filled with shocking imagery, violence and sex, and Princess is certainly that, albeit most likely not in the sense that you are expecting. Morgenthaler’s film is played entirely without irony; played as a tragedy wreaked out on a defenseless child; played out almost as though he is daring you to get off on the sex and violence, daring you to make youself into one of Mia’s tormentors. It is abundantly clear that Morgenthaler made this film because he means it. Fuck the freedom of speech argument, he’s saying, let’s talk about the human cost of the sex industry.

Powerful and uncompromising Princess has stirred up controversy wherever it has played for a very simple reason. Everyone is complicit in Morgenthaler’s world, everyone is to blame, no one is pure. By making a little girl the focal point of the film Morgenthaler poses the debate in the basest, most fundamental terms. What if Mia was your daughter? Would you want her in this world? It’s a scenario that catches many in a basic conundrum, both upset that they’ve been so effectively manipulated into a corner and yet still cheering loudly when the crowbar comes down.