When 'Waltz with Bashir' almost got the Oscar prize for best foreign-language movie this year I did not know that it has a precursor in using animation to pass a very serious message. 'Princess' reminds from many points of view the Israeli movie, and even has some very similar looks. In a mix of animation and amateur movies filmed with hand-held camera it tells a story that would be too disturbing to be made with actors. A five year girl is orphaned by the death by overdose of her mother, a porn actress. Her uncle takes her under his protection, only to find out that she was abused by her mother's entourage. They engage in a violent voyage of revenge that ends in tragedy.The combination of animation - the cinema genre associated with the wonderful innocent world of childhood faeries - and documentary footage gives style to this otherwise disturbing story of a traumatic childhood and of violent revenge. Although the film is a little bit too simple in its approach and some of its details it leaves a strong impression exactly because of its apparent minimalism. It's like 'Kill Bill' meeting Disney on the very shaky and dangerous ground of a tragica story of revenge for a stolen childhood.

Imagine Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" updated for the internet generation and animated. That might give you some idea where the oddball "Princess" is coming from. August, a priest, partly blames himself for the fact that his young, dead sister, Christina, became a famous porn star named Princess. Taking Christina's young daughter, Mia, under his wing, the angry priest begins to dismantle the Danish porn business by torturing producers and firebombing their buildings. Mia accompanies him on his anti-porn campaigns and is even invited to sink a sharp garden instrument into the groin of one cowering producer. August's ultimate mission is to find and annihilate Charlie, the man responsible for Christina's ultimate "success" and reputation as a superwhore. The film is certainly original and defiantly non-PC. Mia is portrayed as a product of her mother's pornographic world, and "acts out" the behavior of whores and porn stars she has encountered. The film uses non-animated, live action footage of Christina to give us a broader perspective of her world. This footage is introduced primarily when Mia or August watch old videotapes of Christina's life. "Princess" is not fast paced or dynamic like a manga, even though its bright, glowing anime style feels Japanese at times. The violence is brutal, and the inclusion of a very young child in these scenes gives the film a disturbing edge. It is a film worth seeing, but it is not entirely satisfying because it plays a little too loose with its fascist politics.

It was a bit of a surprise to discover that the majority of the film consists of animated sequences, with just a bit of grainy video footage (the preview I'd read suggested otherwise) ... but after recovering from that shock, I found the film somehow lacking - whilst watching it, I suspended my disbelief, and was quite take by the characters and winced at the violence. But looking back, it all just seems a bit unreal - whereas thinking back to violent non-animated films, I recall them as violent ... this I just recall as being animated !At the London Film Festival screening, the director was on stage afterwards for an interesting Q&A - where he defended the slow pace of the film, by insisting that he would have liked to make it faster, but the 1.5m dollar budget didn't allow. He also revealed that part of his inspiration for making the film was the work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, whose photos he initially found erotic ... but eventually he considered the women behind the photos, and how they must all be daughters and sisters (an issue he repeatedly brought up). Anders insisted that in Denmark, whilst pornography is openly available, the women involved are regarded as being a sort of underclass - and his film was partly an attempt to expose this hypocrisy. He admitted that they had considered different endings, but the one he chose was the only one that seemed to work !

Stylistically, Princess is unique and innovative and extremely well made; even to the extent of being called an art movie. Contents-wise, however, it is not an art movie, but purely an outpouring of anger. The story is good and important (if quite simple), and one understands the emotion that underlies it. It is a movie that deserves a high grade simply for initiating a discussion of this sort of subject matter. The porn industry is a crucible of enormous individual tragedy for those caught in it, and it is easy to blame those who seem immediately responsible: the producers. But, of course, porn is a consequence of larger social mechanisms, and to get rid of the type of porn (which today is almost all of it) that demeans and degrades women requires larger social changes. I suspect Morgenthaler is aware of this (esp. because the culprit, Charlie, survives the protagonists), but realizes that one must crawl before being able to walk. This is his opening statement, and it doesn't penetrate to any deeper social causes of the subject treated, but later works of his might. Let's hope.We live in an era that hardly even talks about this kind of subject matter, and that is part of the problem. We cannot have a meaningful public dialog about such things until the subject has been broached in some initial, fairly simple way that makes people willing to discuss it. Once the discussion has been opened, debate on the deeper causes of the problems can be engaged in. Kudos to Morgenthaler for attempting to treat a very serious subject which hardly anybody else have tried to take a good look at before.8 out of 10.