Confessions of an ugly stepsister

An ironic, revisionist look at the fairy tale themes of beauty and ugliness, Confessions follows Cinderella’s ‘ugly’ teenage stepsister, IRIS, an English refugee, forced to flee to Holland after her father’s violent death. With her once rich and beautiful mother, MARGARETH, more concerned about keeping up appearances than finding them shelter, and her overweight, slow-witted sister, RUTH, hardly capable of standing still without breaking something, Iris is forced to rely on her own devices to provide for her family. Despite her plain looks, she manages to charm a young painter’s apprentice, CASPER, and provide her family with jobs as servants for THE MASTER a befuddled portrait, who wants Iris to be his model. Iris is heartbroken the first time she sees her portrait, realizing that rather than thinking her beautiful, The Master was using her plain look to emphasize the beauty of the flowers she was holding. But when VAN DEN MERE, a wealthy tulip merchant, hires The Master to paint a similar portait of his beautiful daughter, CLARA, he’s impressed with Iris’ intelligence, and hires her family move into the mansion, where Iris struggles to convince the spoiled, cruel, agoraphobic Clara to pose for the painting, and Margarethe turns her attentions to the wealthy (and single) man of the house. Eventually, the Master paints the most portait of his life, and, in a triumphant moment, Margarethe convinces Van Den Mere to marry her…