The film Anora is not really a love story. It shows how important and beautiful female rage can be.
The film starts, women turn on poles and dance in men's laps in a luxurious strip club in New York. Loud music sounds from the speakers and the people smile. Anora, 23, also called Ani (Mikey Madison), works there as a stripper. She wants to leave this old life of her behind. One evening, she meets Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein), the son of a Russian oligarch. He is sweet and very aware of the appearance that he can give. He is on vacation at his parents villa on the outskirts of New York. His plan is to gain the American citizenship, to break free from his family. The 21-year-old, also called Walja, also has a soft side. So it happens, that Ani and Walja fall in love with each other, each for their own reasons and hopes for a future.
Everything about Ani shines: her nails with the little butterfly press-on on her middle finger, her glittering streaks in her long brown hair and her always on sleek-makeup. She curses so much in this film, by her acts she appears unshakable. She doesn't hesitate to take what she wants, but she is very sensitive in the inside. Morally she has a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong.
Mikey Madison developed her role together with the director Sean Baker, receiving positive feedback. In preparation, she met with sex workers, took dance classes and researched the world of sex work from many perspectives over the course of several months, she says in interviews. At Cannes, the film won the Palme d'Or. "Anora" got called from many sides as an authentic and fair portrayal of modern sex work and that gives sex workers a serious platform. Director Sean Baker (Red Rocket, 2021, and The Florida Project, 2017) explores with that another side of American society.
Ani is diving so fast into a relationship with Zakharov. Initially just for one night, then he asks her if she would like to be exclusive with him for seven days and she agrees. Their opposites attract strongly. It is romantic, yet also broken in a way. The existential circumstances under which they met and fell in love underscore their emotional connection. The two float on their cloud, somewhere between partying and following mornings on a couch, smoking weed and playing video games. But Walja avoids telling Ani how difficult his relationship with his family is. He doesn't seem to really want to grasp the other side of reality and be honest with her.
How their love story develops after they got married one day resembles a tragedy. Zakharov faces a decision: love or money. When Zakharov’s father finds out that his son married Anora, he sends three men looking out to find the couple, and one afternoon they find them in the villa. Special effects, stunts, and daring scenes characterize then the plot, which out of the sudden turn into a complicated chase scene in road movie style.
One of these men is Igor (Yuriy Borisov; Compartment No. 6), who, over the course of the story, develops feelings for Ani. Then there is also Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), whose anger continuously brings humor into situations, but he also somehow has to bear all the responsibility. And Toros (Karren Karagulian), an aggressive, polemical guy without a backbone. So there is a lot of agressive feeling going on, which seem absurd, maybe also funny sometimes, only on the screen.
The overwhelming hatred between everyone, and the fact that their relationships are based solely on power and financial dependency is underneath that humor the main topic. Some scenes are grotesque and slapstick in nature but the dialogues and strong performances always bring the situations back down.
In one scene, Anora confronts the three men, when they are holding her agressively in their hands. She wants to throw them out of the house. Zakharov already has left the house, before the argument even escalates. Ani has to fight the three men then alone. She destroys the apartment, biting, screaming, and lashing out. In grief and despair, she embodies pure rage. It feels strikingly real, not least because Mikey Madison herself did not use a stunt double and performed the scenes herself. She brings Anora to life in a multifaceted and special way. When the man touch Anora wrong she fights back, acting as any woman would act who is held down and bound by three men. But the seriousness of the characters in the film, given the circumstances, still seem abstract. From an outsider's perspective, reality would get perceived differently.
The anger of the protagonists is boiling inside them while they long for love and this gets really emotional and intense. The film is intensely impulsive, and perhaps it is this very characteristic that could see as depth in the roles. Scenes that seem particularly dangerous for Ani are not told in clichés. And in the end of the story, the plot finds somehow back to reality of the topic.
The plot explores what is worth fighting for and when it’s better to set boundaries. It’s about immaturity and growing up. The feeling reminds a little on some of the texts of Frank Oceans album "channel Orange". The film takes place in January, and somehow that fits. Snowy landscapes and the emptiness of a city create a strange feeling. Silence can evoke a very special atmosphere. If Ani and Walja were colors, she would be pink and he would be blue. Like in the sky, they would meet one evening.
There is no happy ending. Walja chooses money over love. The plan to gain American citizenship through a wedding and thereby separate from his parents hasn’t worked out. "We can't get married, do you understand?" is a vague farewell. In the end, Ani is left with little, but she fought for love and stayed true to her values.
Another version is published firstly on the Website of Monopol Online.
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