Princesses

Caye lives in a middle-class neighbourhood, lies to her mother, and waits for clients in a hair salon. Zulema came from the Dominican Republic, has no papers, works the street, and is the face of the immigration the local women treat as an invasion. The two clash first and become friends afterwards. The subject is not sex work but what the two women learn from each other. Caye discovers she can fall in love and Zulema discovers she can ask for help, and both of them pay for it. The form is warm and close. Fernando Leon de Aranoa builds the class difference through language rather than decor, through who is able to say what. The film won three Goyas in 2006: Candela Pena for Best Actress, Micaela Nevarez for Best New Actress, and Manu Chao's Me llaman calle for Best Original Song. Nevarez was the first Puerto Rican to win one, and a Puerto Rican actress taking Spain's national award for playing a Dominican character folds the film's own subject back onto itself. Who it is for: viewers who like character-driven Spanish social drama. Who it is not for: anyone who will notice, and mind, that Zulema's story is structured to serve Caye's transformation; the criticism was made at the time and it is not baseless.