Critics reviews

“Princess” is one of the most genuinely dread-filled and nauseating films in recent memory — and writer and director Tali Shalom Ezer refuses to flinch at what she’s created (and neither do Haas and Pfeffer, who breathe vicious life into both of their characters). But that doesn’t make it entirely successful at what it’s setting out to do.

The film is an incredibly unflinching portrayal of sexual abuse, particularly one scene filmed in a static shot that never cuts away, requiring an intense amount of bravery and trust between the actors. The young actress Haas is riveting in a performance far beyond her years. “Princess” takes its time, but patience pays off in this sensitive slow burn of a story.

["Princess"] layers a seductive tone over electric undercurrents — including a growing mother-daughter competitiveness — that build to a deeply upsetting climax. But, strangely, thanks to Ms. Haas’s truly remarkable lead performance (she was 16 at the time of filming) and Ms. Shalom-Ezer’s nuanced dialogue, Adar’s journey finally feels more like one of empowerment than victimization.

The sloping plot of the film is all happenstance, loosely connected scenes strung together, a life taking shape... Sweetness alongside the rage, the silence. It’s hard to keep watching. Don’t stop.

The film is very sensitively made, perceptive about the psychology of people in such situations (especially with regards to Alma’s in-denial mother), and intensely atmospheric thanks to Ishai Adar’s insinuating soundtrack and Radek Ladczuk’s spooky, hazy lensing... Unfortunately, the narrative endgame is a mess, and should have been rethought in development, but there’s no denying Ezer has made a bold, audacious debut.

Eerily similar in premise to fellow Sundance title “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” but very different tonally and otherwise, the Israeli drama “Princess” plays out an unsettling scenario of underage sexuality in enigmatic, almost dreamlike terms.

A haunting and harrowing walk along the blurred line between the real world and the imagined one, and while it features a couple scenes guaranteed to pause your breath, it presents this particular nightmare with fantastic beauty.