Abstract

This cultural and gender-studies oriented article analyzes the film “Princesa,” directed by São Paulo born and London resident Henrique Goldman (UK and Italy, 2001), a free adaptation of the autobiography of Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque, a semi-literate transgender from Brazil’s poor backlands, born Fernando and nicknamed Princesa; she migrated to Italy in 1988 to pursue her dream of a sex-reassignment surgery for which cost she engages in sex work. Expanding on Walter Benjamin’s notion of the optical unconscious, it examines, specifically, the uncanny sense of familiarity with certain key images of Walt Disney’s Cinderella (1950) haunting the first part of “Princesa”; it thus brings to light quintessential images that audiences have internalized from his mass media production. The argument is that Goldman’s film offers the audience the possibility of encountering radical alterity through Disney’s familiar images that have captivated the world. In further contrast with film treatment of transgenders in general, which tend to under- or misrepresent the complex spectrum of gender expression, Goldman’s provides plenty of screen space for Princesa and aids in the understanding of the desires and conflicts of a female trapped in a man’s body. The article then also analyzes the ways “Princesa” departs from Disney’s adaptation of Charles Perrault’s 1697 classic literary fairy tale, in which seventeenth century gender roles remain unchanged. In contrast, Goldman stresses the protagonist’s agency, altering the spectator’s traditional views of gender roles and sexuality. Further drawing upon Jack Zipes (1986), inter alia, and establishing parallels between “Princesa” and feminist fairy tales that speak in generally silenced voices, the article analyzes Goldman’s politicization of the fairy tale and suggests that he advances a gender politics. It finally discusses the film’s ambiguous ending and whether its representation of transgenders contributes to the social recognition and empowerment of this group.