Anora, a small budget film, awarded five Academy Awards on Sunday. In the middle of the mixed reviews and questions about his selection at the Oscars, the Sean Baker film impressed the jury. Anora won everything!
Anora is a roller coaster of emotions. It is a slowly cooked, chaotically planned psychological journey of the figure Anora, played by Mikey Madison. We meet Anie (she is never happy to be called naked by her full name) and dance on the lap of a customer. She ends her task on the hand and switches to the bar almost immediately to lure another middle -aged man to one of the private rooms.
Anora is a roller coaster of emotions. It is a slowly cooked, chaotically planned psychological journey of the figure Anora, played by Mikey Madison.
Anie is not sad or apologizes to her choice of career. She works with full strength and is one of the most popular service providers in her establishment, and her smoke interruptions are a cultural shock. The dancers discuss masculinity in their most endangered state.
Anora’s world: a heterotopia
Heterotopia in the context of space theory are interconnected rooms that invert or suspend social rules or norms. Foucault’s idea of heterotopias included spaces such as prisons, mental asylum and cinemas.
Source: IMDB
Baker constructs a similarly dark and glittering room in Anora, in which names fade and only desires are expressed. The women sexually dominate men and use their fetishes to make money. While it may appear a patriarchal area at the beginning, Baker’s funny storytelling shifts the gaze and the women dressed in shiny tangas reduce men to objects.
The “money belt” symbolizes how sex is only for money for these women, and men pay for their fetishes. The moment she returns to her apartment near the railway rails, she is only another woman without sleeping rooms – a woman who forgets to bring milk and share the apartment with a friend.
Erotic or realism
Anora was released as an erotic and simplified representation of the life of sex workers. But how do you show the life of sex workers without showing eroticism? Anora is brave and bizarre. In the first episodes, it leaves almost nothing to the imagination of the audience. Every transaction is shown in its full splendor. From the wrong groans to orgasms, each emotion is shown exactly by clever camera hinges and flawless direction.
Every transaction is shown in its full splendor. From the wrong groans to orgasms, each emotion is shown exactly by clever camera hinges and flawless direction.
The life of the lap dancers is not romanticized. They are neither helpless women nor feminists; They are just women who try to earn survival. The behavior is not erotic; It is a job that satisfies the man.
Anora: A chaotic odyssey
Anie meets Ivan (played by Mark Eydelshteyn) in the danceable. She is selected to use it because she is the only employee who understands Russian. The innocent selection leads to a whirlwind of incidents that build the facade of a fairytale story.
Source: IMDB
What would a young woman who works as a laptaer would fantasize about? Money. Anies meeting with the son of the Russian oligarch opens her unknown ways. The initial dance and the following contacts led them to the massive luxurious mansion. Ivan, a spoiled brat, rents anie for a few hours, one evening, New Year’s night, 15 days, and finally marries it.
Marriage is not a highlight of a love story, but a spontaneous decision. Ivan wants to stay in America, so he suggests getting married. She agrees, the only state is a diamond ring with 4 carat. The ring is bought and the marriage is celebrated. The twenty -one -year -old Russian teenager marries the twenty -three -year -old prostitute to stay in America. Despite anies diverse efforts, she is identified as a prostitute, as a hooker, dancer and much more such patriarchal allusions.
Anora wants to be seen as a woman, but the whole relationship revolves around money, sex and special sex. You hardly talk. They don’t even share their routines. He is happy because he can stay in America and she is happy because she no longer has to work because the man comes with a lot of money.
They don’t even share their routines. He is happy because he can stay in America and she is happy because she no longer has to work because the man comes with a lot of money.
It is this money and the associated name that leads to chaos. The chaos in which Ivan Anora leaves alone. The chaos of life after their marriage will be announced to the Zakharov family. This chaos becomes the climax of all the senseless eroticism that opens the film.
The nuance of relationships
Baker builds the relationship with careful precision. Anie lies on Ivan while playing, but he never really hears her. It is neglected and only used if the man needs “special sex”. Your expressions make your disinteresting clear, and Baker ensures that every curve is recorded.
Source: IMDB
The comment by presenting the empty relationship determines the senselessness of money and sex in a marriage. While the relationship saturates its respective wishes, it does not meet.
The end of Anora further examines this nuance. Anie, a woman used for her body, cannot understand sympathy and love. Her relationship with Igor (played by Yura Borisov) shows how the patriarchy disappointed her. She assumes that Igor would have raped her if he had the chance and she almost never trusts him. With Igor, the audience sees the cracks in Anie for the first time.
Until the third quarter of Anora, it is a comment on a stupid man-child and a woman with wishes. Its character only accepts the shape in the last quarter. She cannot understand Igors little gestures. He takes care of them, protects them and stands for them. She built her relationship with the patriarchy to this creature, which only understands sex and money.
Only when Igor tries to kiss her will she breaks. The strong woman’s facade breaks and she is vulnerable for the first time. The beauty of this expression makes Anora an unforgettable experience. The audience lives with Anora in private dark rooms and then in the Suites of Los Angeles. The audience travels with her in the cold nights of America and is looking for her husband with three unknown Russian men.
The audience travels with her in the cold nights of America and is looking for her husband with three unknown Russian men.
She marries in search of protection (or just money) and remains the most vulnerable after finally getting married.
Ivan’s relationship with his parents is not available. You pay for him and rely on the Russian rackets to control his actions and clean up his chaos. He is the figurehead for a spoiled, rich man, and she fades in his presence.
Anora is a piece of life that cannot fit into a certain genre. It flows through borders and transcends all stereotypes. We expect a lot or nothing, but where the film ends is a welcome surprise and a worrying reality. Anora binds his audience to the chair and does not let go. It is exciting, disappointing, frustrating and redeemed, but never boring.
Source: Prime Video
Anora is a fresh voice in the milieu of lazy stories. It brings a fresh perspective and almost pushes its audience out of her sleep. Anora deserves his awards and more. It is not a perfect film, but a new aspect of storytelling, an art that is extinct. Anora has to be observed on Mikey’s flawless spectacle and the perfect stories from Baker. It has to be celebrated and recommended to break barriers.
Anora is the story of a woman who sets up a facade of strength and control, but disassembles in the arms of a warm hug.