One might think about star-crossed lovers. But when Frankfurt-based art curator Monika Albrecht (Ursula Strauss) and Congolese-born diamond merchant Joseph Badibanga (Passi Balende) meet in the yard of an African bar, hiding from a police inspection, the tone for less than-ideal romance is set. How can a white European woman and a black African man meet as equals? How do colonialism, exploitation and casual racism play into this constellation?

German director Lisa Bierwirth tries to obtain some answers in her directional debut Le Prince. Prince is a tale of intercultural tensions, lack of trust, and pure love. While Joseph spends his days trying to find investors for a diamond mine back in his home country, all while doing shady side deals to keep the money flowing, Monika is part of the culture scene of Frankfurt. As an art curator for the Frankfurter Kunsthalle, she might not make big money but is moving around the art bubble with prestige.

This all comes crashing down when her longtime boss and former lover Peter (Alex Brendemühl) decides to take up a job elsewhere. With years of experience working in the field, but limited kills at charming the board, Monika still plans on making a bid for the Artistic Director position. “I’m getting old, I don’t want to be invisible”, she tells Joseph when asked why she is bending over so much to fit this executive persona. At the African bar, however, where she first met him, she can let her guard down. She is a white woman with an African heart, Joseph’s friends say admiringly.

Joseph’s semi-legal status, as well as the business he keeps getting involved in with his dubious friend Ambara (Nsumbo Tango Samuel) keep plowing mistrust between the lovers. Maybe Monika is too naïve about the options a Congolese immigrant has in Germany. More than once, she and her friends are condescending towards him about what running a mine entails. Have they been to Congo, he responds. If not, then they shouldn’t be talking.

It is commendable that Bierwirth manages shows both sides of the coin, without exacting judgment. Her directorial glance remains cold and distant. There is Monika’s idealistic outlook, her white saviour complex. She is willing to marry Joseph and help him gain legal status. He resists at first, providing a peculiar explanation: “my father was colonised”, and he won’t let them do the same happen to him. There is also Joseph’s intrinsic need to prove he’s worth the same as a white German, whatever this may take. “I don’t want to live like this. For me, you don’t have to be rich”, Monika opposes his dealings. Again and again, Joseph seems at the mercy of her help. She bails him out of prison, takes him in, and provides a space for him and his friends to meet.

Bierwirth eventually offers a resolution, a way this relationship may work. Despite the micro-aggressions and the strict social norms, the director remains quietly optimistic. Maybe love always wins indeed.

Prince shows online for free throughout the entire month of December as part of ArteKino 2024.

Just click here in order to watch it now.