Chilean duo’s *Donkey Princess* critiques patriarchy with stop-motion

Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña have stunned audiences once again with *Donkey Princess*, a stop-motion fairytale that premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week. The film follows Princess Donkey—exiled from her kingdom—as she navigates a world that refuses to let her escape the weight of patriarchy. Using their signature handmade aesthetic—clay, papier-mâché, and puppetry—the duo crafts a visually fluid nightmare, blending dream logic with sharp social critique.

This isn’t the first time León and Cociña have turned childhood fables into unsettling mirrors of reality. Their 2018 debut, *The Wolf House*, began as a seemingly innocent tale about a piglet fleeing a wolf but spiraled into a haunting allegory of Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship. That film’s success—winning awards at Berlin and Locarno—cemented their reputation for transforming nostalgic forms into subversive art. Critics praised its tactile, handcrafted chaos as a rejection of digital perfection, proving that stop-motion could feel alive in ways CGI never could.

*Donkey Princess* expands on that legacy. Early screenings reveal a story that constantly reshapes itself, with sets physically morphing mid-scene to reflect the protagonist’s psychological unraveling. León described the process as “trying to break the illusion while making it.” The film’s surreal visuals aren’t just style—they’re a deliberate attack on the rigidity of traditional fairytales, where women’s roles are often fixed. At Cannes, critics called it “a feminist nightmare given form,” noting parallels to Angela Carter’s *The Bloody Chamber*.

Beyond the festival circuit, León and Cociña are already planning their next project: a stop-motion adaptation of a Latin American folk horror tale. If *Donkey Princess* proves anything, it’s that their work thrives at the intersection of innocence and dread. For audiences tired of sanitized fantasy, their films offer a raw, handmade rebellion.