Sean Baker ‘marries’ the Russian mafia in ‘Anora’ to destroy the American dream

In the 1990 film, a whoremonger ‘saved’ a prostitute, pulling her out of a quagmire of pimps, violence and drugs. And the whole world happily applauded such a story, an insultingly sexist story. Today, the whoremonger is an uncontrolled rich kid who, drunk as hell, marries the prostitute, but runs away and leaves her in the lurch as soon as his parents, some very pissed off Russian gangsters, show up. Anorabrand new Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festivalsettles accounts and finally exposes the hoax of ‘Pretty Woman’, and does so with clean laughter.

Crazy comedy, thriller with chase and mafiasSean Baker’s new film is also denunciatory and political cinema, with which the filmmaker once again approaches the world of sex workers, exposes the classism that pervades the US and reveals the presence of mafias in the country. Actress Mikey Madison and Russian actor and director Mark Eidelshtein are the leading couple.

The power of money

“I think my interest in trying to meet sex workers comes from starletwhich was the first film where I addressed the issue. During that process I met several sex workers and now I like to study the current state they are in and show the discrimination they suffer,” said director and screenwriter Sean Baker during his stay at the San Sebastian Festival, where he participated in the Perlak section. “There are millions of stories to tell from that world. Honestly, I didn’t decide to make so many films on the subject, it wasn’t my intention, but I have found infinite inspiration.”

This time, the filmmaker wanted to “show that world in a different way than it had been done before.” Comedy, with a very crazy humor and jumping tirelessly from the romantic to the almost hysterical, has been the best tool to tell the sad reality of these women, in parallel to the contempt and constant and overwhelming power of money.

“It took us a while to figure out the story we wanted to tell,” Baker confesses. “We didn’t want to tell the typical gangster story because it seemed to us that the topic was already very hackneyed, but we did want to talk about the dynamics of power, of hierarchies. And marrying the mafia allowed us to talk about it. Marrying money, marrying the son of a Russian from the mafia, and as soon as we came up with that concept, we knew we had something special, also because as soon as we told it, everyone died laughing. “That gave us the green light to decide from that moment on that this was the story we wanted to tell.”

A universal story

A story also of fathers and sons, of rich and poor, of bosses and soldiers, of bodyguards, of gangsters and prostitutes… with which so many archetypes of cinema are turned upside down. “You expect certain things from these characters, but in the film they do completely different things. The idea was to present the stereotype and destroy it. And with that we are telling a universal story.”

“What I mean is that I wanted all the people in this story to be identifiable, that everyone could identify with one of the characters. For example, I can’t say that I have been in the shoes of the son of a gangsterbut we have all been immature young people, we are all children… so even Iván is a character in which people can see themselves reflected. And that’s what makes these stories human.”

Violence and sex

So, Anora, a crazy comedy from the best American independent cinema He becomes a powerful enemy of the conservative and puritanical customs that Hollywood encourages. “In US cinema it seems that we are trying to avoid sex and nudity and that seems very strange to me, considering that it is one of the things that make us human. And at the same time, we embrace so much violence today… “I have a problem with that. I wouldn’t say it’s censorship, but I certainly try to stop playing it too safe with my stories.”

Stories of antiheroes, of workers, who, as the filmmaker acknowledges, bother in some circles. “I have discovered that today, especially watching social networks, You can’t tell a story without insulting someone.. Life is like that and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to shy away from material because it may be offensive to someone. I don’t want to be intentionally inappropriate or offensive or aggressive to the audience, but I do want to say that we are all adults and my films are made for adults, so well, I’m sorry, but…”

Surely those who still maintain the mirage of the well-worn American dream, of the country of all possibilities for everyone, are a little bit stung by this film, a story that reveals the class abyss that exists in the country. “In the United States we have a great class division that is becoming more acute every day, it is difficult not to recognize it and I want to talk about it when telling stories, because if not, it seems to me that I am being a little lazy. It is something that, unfortunately, it defines us in the United States. the american dream It only consists of having more money and more material goods. That’s what the American dream has become. And I’m recognizing that a little bit in my stories.”