Caye (Candela Pena) is a 25-year-old prostitute from a middle-class family in Madrid. Her mother Pilar (Mariana Cordero), her brother, and his wife do not know about her work. Every Sunday she visits them and gets more depressed about her mother, who has secretly been sending herself bouquets of flowers with little notes attached to them from an unsigned admirer. Caye laments the fact that Pilar has not been able to handle the death of her husband three years ago and still fantasizes that he may be alive. Of course, Caye resembles her mother in her mind games. She is saving money so she can have a breast implant to make herself more appealing to her clients and bring in more money.
Caye has a group of men who call her regularly, and they all know what she will do and not do for them. She meets with other prostitutes at a hairdressing salon where they share stories and express their fears. Many in the group are upset over the immigrants who charge less for sexual favors and take away their business. Caye does lose a client to one of them, Zulema (Micaela Nevarez), a young and frisky woman from the Dominican Republic. She lives nearby and one night, when she hears loud music coming from her apartment, Caye investigates and finds her hovering in a corner of the bathroom; she's been beaten by a man who promised to get her the papers she needs to stay in Spain. Caye takes her to the hospital for treatment of her cuts and bruises.
Caye and Zulema strike up a friendship and share their yearnings for a better life. In a moment of unguarded honesty, Caye admits that she has had no experience of a magical time that she can even be nostalgic about. Zulema has had the most precious moments in her life back home with her four-year-old son who is living with her mother. She regularly sends money back to the Dominican Republic for his support.
Life on the street for both of them is hard and filled with frequent humiliations. The clients view their sexual transactions mainly as occasions to exert their power. Caye meets Manuel (Luis Callejo), who works in a computer business. When he asks her what she does, she says that she's a whore. He laughs and does not believe her. This enables Caye to start constructing a fantasy life with him. One of her fondest yearnings is to have a man who loves her pick her up after work.
Writer and director Fernando Leon de Aranoa's last movie was Mondays in the Sun about some unemployed workers in Madrid. In this engaging drama, he explores how these two prostitutes to survive in a world that treats them with scorn. Caye becomes Zulema's protector, a relationship that is demonstrated in scenes where they meet in cafes to talk, go shopping, and go dancing together. Caye even takes her friend to meet her family which results in her brother's wife, a school principal, asking Zulema to speak to a class of children about sex education. With her enthusiasm, she is a big hit with the kids.
At one point, Caye calls the two friends "fragile princesses in a big city." In the finale, an act of great kindness and generosity enables one of them to take a step in the right direction. Princesas is another memorable film by Spanish writer and director Fernando Leon de Aranoa that introduces us to the struggles and dignity of those marginal people in society whose lives are rarely explored in movies. Hats off to him and to Candela Pena and Micaela Nevarez for their impressive performances!
