User Reviews

This film is about child sex abuse and there really are only 3 people involved the mother the mother's boyfriend and the girl, Adar, Alan is imaginary to help her to distant her self from the guilt she feels for allowing Michael the boyfriend to repeatedly violate her, The director largely depends on an audience to work this out and illustrates it with the resemblances between the boy Alan and the girl Adar, even putting them in the same clothes, and having them continue the same scene, when one exits. A lot of the things that seem to have taken place in the film have not, such as the trip in the car to see the friends of Alan selling themselves, as well as the imagined bumping into the father. The director moves the film along at snail pace because he is trying to show that the child's abuse has been developing over years and probably with the mother's awareness, this is suggested by the unabashed sexual behaviour of the couple in front of the girl, and even in one scene or more it looked like the very mother was about to seduce her own daughter.

This is why I like foreign films - they tackle subjects in ways that Hollywood wouldn't dare. This is a movie that leaves one guessing. Aside from the coming-of-age aspect and the disturbing parts about the weird behavior by the mother's boyfriend is the issue of what is real and what is not. What parts are real, and what are products of an unusual young girl's retreat into fantasy to escape her atypical living situation? That is the key question raised in the film.

Is Alan real? Certainly not. Even the logo for the film implies they are not two separate people. The same is true throughout the movie; it is obvious Alan is a fantasy created by Adar. Would a parent allow a homeless boy they just met to sleep in the same bedroom with their young daughter? Not likely. Would Michael, the mother's boyfriend, show an attraction to both the boy and the girl? Probably not. I feel Adar created Alan to absorb some of the abuse she is subjected to by Michael. Alan's final scene toward the end of the movie further implies that he was a creation of Adar's mind. She no longer needs him at that point, so he disappears. She has reconciled her issues, both internal and with her mother and Michael. That is also indicated by the fact that she returns to school. Also, note the knife Alan uses as he leaves the house for good, and confronts Michael with. Adar pointedly uses the same knife in a later scene.

There are other scenes that I wonder about, too, as to whether they are real or not. I don't want to delve into them here; it would take too long, and people need to watch the film and decide for themselves.

So what is real, and what did Adar create in her mind to cope with her unusual living situation? I'm still not sure, so I will have to watch the movie again. I suspect even then I will probably still have similar questions. But that's what makes this film so intriguing.

I highly recommend this movie to people who aren't afraid of being challenged by a film, and aren't afraid of subject matter that Hollywood wouldn't touch.

On the technical side, the only DVD I found is in Hebrew, with embedded English subtitles. The only worthwhile extra is a 13 minute "Behind the Scenes" narrated by the female director that is in Hebrew only, with no subtitles.

This is a film that deserves to be re-released on DVD and/or Blu-ray, with normal subtitles for the movie and the "Behind the Scenes" extra, and maybe a director's commentary in English or with English subtitles. Are you listening, Criterion?

Trigger Warning(s): Pedophilia & Rape

Characters Worth Noting

Adar (Shira Haas) | Michael (Ori Pfeffer) | Alma (Keren Mor) | Alan (Adar Zohar-Hanetz)

Main Storyline

Adar was perhaps once a brilliant girl, but then Michael came into her life. Her mother, Alma, adores Michael, to the point they get a bit saucy even in front of Adar. But it seems Michael finds himself more than just in love, or perhaps lust, with Alma. Being an avid painter, Michael finds something about Adar which makes her into his muse. One he almost obsessively draws and Alma pays little mind to it as she often pays no mind to anything dealing with Adar, unless she becomes inconvenient that is. Hence how a boy named Alan is allowed to stay with them, as long as he can keep Adar from skipping school.

But alas, Alan's presence isn't a solution but merely a distraction. One which just reveals more of Michael's twisted ways, and how it affects Adar, to us.

{Commentary}

I don't know why it is I never find myself drawn to foreign films which have happy endings and happy people but aren't a bore. This one from Israel though, I must admit is as head turning as most I've seen. Reason being, we have a mother neglecting her child's various means and methods of trying to speak with her mother, all because of the way a man moves his hips. Which was a bit strange to me but not because I don't know of many women like Alma, but because of how inconsistent Alma and Adar's relationship is. On one hand, it seems like she cares about Adar and notes how she enjoyed some one on one time she got with her with Michael not there, and she even seemed joyful to walk Adar through her first period. However, there are at least two occasions when Adar tries to open her mother's eyes to what is going on and she is ignored. The bigger moment of the two is before a rape scene and it seems Alma ignores it as either Adar or Alan struggles. Though I should note, when Michael returns to bed she does clinch or do something to his privates but then at breakfast, it is like nothing happened.

Leading to what makes this movie so trippy. Alan is a teen-aged boy who, because the mom is so inconsistent in her parenting, is allowed to live with her daughter who probably is barely near 13. But often times, it is hard to know whether Alan is real or not. As noted in the "Characters Worth Noting" section, he is played by a different actor. However, in the beginning, you aren't fully clear of Adar and Michael's relationship. Especially how she feels about it. So with Alan's introduction, you are left unsure if this is perhaps a trans youth envisioning how he would like to look, how Adar would look if she could fight back, how perhaps Michael would like her to look since he calls her "Prince" affectionately, or if maybe Alan is what she finds cute?

And what makes it hard to know if Alan is real is because pretty much Alan and Adar have nearly the same physical look and wear nearly identical clothes. Add on Alma consistently refers to Adar as disturbed, though doesn't note if this is an opinion or medical fact, and then you start to analyze how the two are handled in their scenes. Are there clear differences? Does the way Alma and Michael handle Alan make it seem they aren't just adapting to Adar's possible defensive mechanism? Plus, considering the switchblade Alan has, which Alma has at the end, is that a hint that they are the same person or should we just consider that Alan's goodbye gift so Adar could defend herself?

Review Summary

Highlights

The psychology of each character is definitely something you'll ponder a bit about not only during the film but after you watch it. How much did the mom truly care if she willing to put her sexual needs over her daughter's physical safety? How real was Alan and was he how Adar wanted to be or was he perhaps the ideal guy she wanted to talk with, maybe experiment with, as opposed to Michael?

I should note that everyone plays their parts well and will get a reaction out of you. A part of me felt that Haas was probably a bit of a standout, but with a sort of Léa Seydoux vibe to her, that is what brought her, mostly, quiet suffering, its power.

Low Points

If there is no desire to look past the surface of the characters, the mother is, simply put, infuriating and inconsistent. She is almost downright cruel to her daughter, dares to accuse her, Adar, a child, of seducing Michael, and watches her child suffer. Yet will speak so lovingly to her and be so kind when Adar gets her first period. One could argue the inconsistency is because of the mother's own mental issues, but cruelty without explanation is sometimes too much to stomach in a movie.

Tali Shalom Ezer's Princess is about a young girl's reluctant awakening into the harsh adult world. The framing shots trace the story. In the first the screen is filled with the beautiful 12-year-old Adar's blissfully sleeping face. Her doctor mother, Alma (=soul), keeps trying to wake her up, with loving caresses. In the last Adar disappears into the crowd of kids going to her new school. Her relationship with her mother has changed into a tentative cease fire.

In between, much happens. Adar has her first period. She hooks up with a young street boy Alan who looks like a tall androgynous version of her. She's apparently expelled from her own school for truancy. She explodes at her mother, calling her a whore for putting up with her live-in boyfriend Michael.

Michael is the snake in the grass. We first spot him sleeping behind Alma in the same bed as Adar. Later he intrudes roughly on Adar's exploration of first intimacy with Alan. A teacher, Michael has just been fired so he stays in, cooks, and fancies himself an artist. He wants to do a nude of Adar. His relationship with Adar is at the center of the film. It may help explain Adar's altered personality at home and her loss of engagement with school.

His relationship with Adar is immediately suspect, as it involves rough-housing, much tickling (of her), and cathartic mimes of physical battle. When Adar first spots Alan he's doing the latter with another street kid. When Alan later mimes sexual intercourse with Adar he parodies what they hear Michael and Alma doing, but also exposes the underlying significance of Adar's games with Michael. Though Michael is ardent in his sex with Alma he seems attracted to the boyish Adar. She still has an androgynous body and Adar is a gender-neutral name (as the actor playing Alan reminds us). To desexualize his romps with Adar Michael calls her "Prince," which only confirms his bisexuality.

When Michael joins Alan in bed Adar tries to bring her mother to see "the worst thing in the world." She won't come. Michael's rape of Alan leads to the lad's violent departure, Adar's pain and her anger at her mother's refusal to face the truth about her boyfriend. To be fair, Alma does perform a nutcracker suite on Michael but she fails to expel him. She knows but won't admit to herself what he is. After Adar's first period, Alma blames her not Michael for the dangerous physicality of their ostensibly playful relationship.

The two English songs also carry the film's burden. The first is 'You don't own me," a young girl's hopeful declaration of independence. The last song is a valedictory for the lost Alan and for Adar's lost innocence: "I never thought of changing/But now I can't forget you./The days are lost without you…. As far as the eye can see/Is much too far for you to be."

The lesson Adar learns from Alma is that life requires compromise, a moderation of ideals, a withdrawal from absolutes, if the family or emotional peace is to continue, however fragile. Perhaps that's what this film is saying to Israelis, as a new generation steps out of the traditional political narratives and seeks a psychological dynamic as true for the individual psyche and the family as for the nation.