“A bold, visionary work of pure artistry.”

There’s nothing like the feeling of encountering a filmmaker who genuinely excites you and instils a sense of confidence that the medium is in good hands. There’s an argument to be made that we’re witnessing the buildup of a truly fascinating body of work in the films of Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, who have gradually and methodically risen to become essential voices in contemporary cinema. With their short films and features they’ve proven that their perspective is wholly enthralling, each new addition only further establishing their work as amongst the best of the decade, with both The Wolf House and The Hyperboreans ranking as the most original pieces produced in years. Their third feature, Donkey Princess, is also one of their most ambitious. It’s a film that defies all categorization and truly must be seen to be believed, which is exactly what draws the viewer into their worlds. The film tells the story of Diana, whose father rules over a fictional kingdom and keeps his daughter sheltered from the outside world. She soon encounters Lalo, a charismatic drifter who leaves an immediate impression. Diana’s father sees a potential danger, and chooses to exile him. However, Lalo doesn’t leave before giving Diana a special gift that will change her life’s entire trajectory by revealing certain truths that many would prefer to keep concealed. A bold, visionary work of pure artistry, the kind that exists somewhere between astoundingly beautiful and profoundly unhinged, Donkey Princess is an incredible leap into the unknown. Crafted with the kind of care and precision that make it clear that the directors take their work extremely seriously, each moment feels complex and striking in both the message being conveyed and the ways in which they deliver these fascinating and unconventional ideas.

Donkey Princess is a film in which both style and structure are blurred, and where the exact meaning is never made explicit for reasons that we gradually realize. Every viewer will interpret this film differently, in particular those aspects that are deliberately kept ambiguous. These ultimately turn out to be even more exciting than the main storyline, which is delightfully abstract and impenetrable while never deviating so far from logic that it loses focus. In many ways, it seems like León and Cociña were attempting to condense the entirety of humanity into a single film, an ambitious approach that, while infeasible, still feels relevant based on the staggering number of ideas embedded in the heart of the film. The foundation is built on the concept of relationships, particularly between children and their parents – we don’t realize this is where the film is heading when we first step into this abstract world, but as the story progresses we see that there’s more than initially meets the eye. It’s a premise that the directors infuse with layers of complexity, many of which don’t immediately make sense, but which gradually come together to form a multimodal collage of increasingly intriguing ideas. The directors manage to make this premise work exceptionally well, and while the film can sometimes be a bit aloof when exploring its core intentions, there is a mystical quality that doesn’t rely on explaining absolutely every idea, and instead allows the audience to sit with the film and engage with it through their own perspective; a far more valuable approach and one that guides nearly every aspect of this film.

As the story is intentionally opaque, there needed to be certain elements that balanced out the lack of narrative clarity, which we find reflected in the execution of these ideas. The directors started in stop-motion animation (their debut, The Wolf House, is one of the great animated films of the past decade) before gradually moving to live-action filmmaking, which brings us to Donkey Princess, a film that contains some of the most original images ever put on screen, with certain shots being unique and quite unforgettable. Their style is steeped in surrealism, and unlike many other artists who consider themselves part of this same artistic school, León and Cociña approach it from a sincere, meaningful place, rather than just being abstract for the sake of rejecting more conventional filmmaking styles. The best way to describe Donkey Princess would be as a film whose imagery exists at the perfect intersection between the whimsical and the nightmarish, oscillating between the two, and even occasionally finding ways to blend them together. This is where the film truly leaves a lasting impression, since we couldn’t have expected to find something this genuinely unnerving and astoundingly beautiful, the kind of contradiction that this film does exceptionally well. Watching Donkey Princess is akin to stepping into a dream, where the fluid approach to logic and the unconventional imagery create an atmosphere that is hard to describe in coherent terms, yet relishing its ambiguity, using it as an artistic choice that elevates the material and makes it so much more engaging than anticipated.

While it may seem hyperbolic, it’s very clear that León and Cociña are primed to take on the mantle of other notable surrealists who defined the medium. Think of names like David Lynch or Alejandro Jodorowsky, with the latter being an obvious inspiration for the filmmakers both in terms of social and cultural milieu and from a visual perspective. Donkey Princess is a film that benefits from the audience not knowing what to expect, and I’ve deliberately avoided discussing certain plot elements, since part of its brilliance comes in the element of surprise and how we react to certain narrative and visual choices that feel so much richer and more engaging as a result of the pure dedication that went into the creation of this film. We’re extremely fortunate to be watching the directors’ careers gradually grow, since their artistic voice feels essential and deeply compelling, each choice deliberate and meaningful. This results in a film that piques our curiosity with its bold, colorful visuals and the promise of a story that will captivate even the most cynical of viewers, while also holding our attention through its stream-of-consciousness approach. Each scene feels like a vital part of a broader conceptual puzzle that may not make sense at first, but through piecing it together its deeper complexities become gradually known. Donkey Princess is a masterful film, carefully crafted by directors who find meaning in every small choice and ultimately prove that there is still room for genuine creativity in the medium, to the point where this is likely to be one of the most original films of the past few years.

(c) Image copyright: Bendita Film Sales