DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE
Dragonfire
Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo explains how Damsel flips the fairy tale genre upside down
WORDS: TARA BENNETT
Millie Bobby Brown as Elodie, finding her way.
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.