Â鶹ԼÅÄ

The Cinderella story gets an unlikely retelling in Princesa, a touching story of life among Italy's transsexual prostitutes. Escaping from the slums of Brazil to the mean streets of Milan, Fernanda (Ingrid de Souza) is hoping to make enough money to pay for his sex change operation. But the course of real life never runs smooth and Fernanda falls in love with a married man, Gianni (Cesare Bocci), who offers her the chance of a normal life. It's a fairy tale come true. Isn't it?

Avoiding most of the obvious and more sensational clichés, this simple drama spends time convincing us that it knows the world it's set in and records the life of its street walkers using non-professional, transsexual actors. Working the passing trade, Fernanda becomes "Princesa" and transforms into one of the area's most successful sex workers. But her whirlwind romance with Gianni brings an end to that life as he ditches his wife and asks Fernanda to move in with him.

"PRINCESSA ENDS WITHOUT ANSWERS"

Loosely based on the book of the same title by Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque, this low-budget international drama focuses on the elation and misery brought by its heroine's transformation from "Princesa", the scantily clad hooker (all suspenders and fur coats) touting for business on the streets - to "Fernanda", the dowdy middle class housewife (wearing demure off-the-peg dresses) she eventually becomes for Gianni.

Teasing out the class elements underlying her change, director Henrique Goldman charts the fluid nature of identity and contrasts the vibrantly theatrical community of the streets with the straight lines and boxed in claustrophobia of the square life. To its credit, Princesa ends without answers: the closing shot has an ambiguous smile playing over Fernanda's lips, leaving us uncertain whether she's damned or saved. Or, like the rest of us, just somewhere in between.