Lesbian Space Princess
The daughter of Anne and Leanne, queens of the distant planet Clitopia, the life of Saira may have been privileged but is not altogether happy, a lesbian space princess who has always felt that she was not enough for her parents, a flaw in their otherwise perfect existence of harmony and grace, sheltered from the wider universe and consequently afraid of it.
Her girlfriend Kiki more bold, wishing for the two of them to travel and party, Sairia’s continued refusal leads to a bad breakup, compounded by it coinciding with her birthday and the impending ceremony of the ceremony of the Royal Labrys, the sacred two headed axe, a symbol of strength and fertility, her inability to summon it seen as a failure to uphold the traditions of her people.
Written and directed by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, Shabana Azeez is the voice of Saira, the titular Lesbian Space Princess, rejected by Kiki the Destroyer (Bernie Van Tiel) who is swiftly kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens who hold her hostage in return for the Labrys which Saira doesn’t even have, believing its power will allow them to return the universe to an agenda more aligned with their narrow vision.
Aided in her obsessive misguided quest to rescue her ex who doesn’t even like her by a surly spaceship (Richard Roxburgh) and wandering minstrel Willow (Gemma Chua-Tran), rejecting labels and specific pronouns, the film is similarly reticent to be pigeonholed, with basic animation and characters as flat as their two dimensional representations, yet the oddly precise jokes and references defying the numerous indications this is a film intended for children.
Kiki’s need to escape from her suffocating relationship understandable, Sairi is needy, spoiled, whiny and clingy, prone to bouts of despair and bursting into tears constantly, haunted by the manifestation of her doubts but never growing as a person, repeating the same patterns until the final showdown when, without intermediate steps, she finally deigns to be a better Lesbian Space Princess.
The Straight White Maliens clichés of alpha male talking points, straw men set up simply to be knocked down, giving Saira such empty opponents does not make her strong, her journey to self-reliance feeling like an underground eighties art movie flashback floating on more tears than an episode of Discovery, trying to reclaim space which has already been successfully explored with more panache, honesty and better songs by Vagrant Queen and Lesbian Space Crime.
Lesbian Space Princess will be on general release in UK cinemas from Friday 19th June
