DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE
Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo explains how Damsel flips the fairy tale genre upside down
ASK SOMEONE TO CITE A favourite fairy tale these days, and most people immediately think of a Disney-fied version of a classic like Cinderella – but when that story was first published in France in the 17th century, it was rather different. Before they evolved, spreading around the globe, these cultural cautionary tales were often sexual, violent and very weird. We have the Brothers Grimm to blame for sanitising many fairy tales to make them more digestible for children; they’re also often sexist, with inert princesses being saved by heroic princes. However, Netflix’s Damsel, executiveproduced by and starring Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as Princess Elodie, is a refreshing return to fairy tales rife with dark themes, violence and human behaviour that’s worse than anything seen from monsters.
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) from an original story by Dan Mazeau (Wrath Of The Titans), Damsel takes all of the typical tropes inherent to today’s princess-centric fairy tales – glorious castles, lush costumes, charming suitors and happilyever-afters – and remixes them into a story told from the female point of view, one which inverts all expectations.
“Damsel is a full revision of fairy tales,” Fresnadillo tells Red Alert. “That was something that I felt was so attractive, especially because it introduces a very modern and contemporary way, with new values in these kinds of stories.”
In an ancient time of magic, Elodie (Brown) is the eldest daughter in a depressed country, low on food and resources. Desperate to avoid his people starving to death, the King (Ray Winstone) and his new wife, Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett), heed the call of a distant land where Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) is ready to provide a generous dowry in exchange for a princess to marry her son, Prince Henry (Nick Robinson).
Less than pleased about this but loyal to her people, Elodie agrees and departs with her family, including her beloved little sister Floria (Brooke Carter), to wed the Prince, then stay and rule. The sparkling kingdom initially bewitches everyone, but the secret residing in the local mountain will upend Elodie’s entire worldview. What follows sends Elodie on a journey to discover her potential as she battles for her life.
It’s a character that required the emotional skillsets which Brown has shown in spades playing Eleven for four seasons. “We needed an actress that has
