Anora: When the glass slipper breaks

Hilal Özdemir

All the fairy tales we read end with a happy ending. A handsome prince saves the poisoned Snow White, Rapunzel waiting for help in the tower she was locked in, or Cinderella, who was tormented by her stepmother. Men are always depicted as saviors, and women as individuals waiting for help. The villains are sometimes punished and sometimes forgiven by the innocent princess.

But have you ever thought about what happens in the rest of the fairy tale while you close the book and drift into sweet dreams?

Let us follow the continuation of fairy tales, which contain many possibilities, both positive and negative, through Anora.

Anora achieved great success at the 97th Academy Awards held in recent weeks.

Director Sean Baker won "Best Picture," "Best Director," "Best Original Screenplay," and "Best Editing," while Mikey Madison, who plays the lead role, won the "Best Actress" award.

The 2024 US-produced film, which left its mark on the Oscars, stars Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, and Yura Borisov.

Before moving on to the analysis of the film, I must state this: With its story, Anora reminded me of Pretty Woman, a classic romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. While Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in Pretty Woman achieves her fairy tale and has a finale worthy of fairy tales, we cannot say the same for Anora.

Now let's take a closer look at Anora...

Our character, whose real name is Anora but prefers to be called Ani, is a sex worker who works at a strip club. Ani is someone who makes a living using her body and skills, has roots in the former Eastern Bloc countries, and knows Russian but prefers not to speak it. One night, Vanya, the son of a Russian oligarch, comes to the club where she works. Her boss, thinking that Ani can communicate better with Vanya thanks to her knowledge of Russian, calls her specifically. The attraction that begins between the two results in a sudden decision to marry. However, Vanya's family takes action to annul this marriage, and events become inextricable.

It is necessary to examine the film in two separate parts. The first part shows that Ani is living out her Cinderella fairy tale; the second part shows that the end of the fairy tale does not end at all as we know it.

Ani thinks that by marrying Vanya, she will move up in class. Vanya's family and the family's employees, hearing what happened, step in to break up the marriage. Thus, Ani's dreams collide with the harsh face of reality.

The film, which strikingly reveals how Ani's American dream turns into a nightmare, skillfully reflects Ani's entrapment with close-up shots and how lonely she is in a huge country with wide shots.

Ani is someone who has always looked at the lives of the rich she envies from afar. Think of looking at a painting from a distance. All the colors look harmonious and perfect with each other. However, as you get closer to the painting, the brushstrokes become distinct, and the harmony of the colors begins to break down all of a sudden. As Ani begins to look closely at Vanya's glittering life, she sees how everything that seems perfect is actually in chaos.

Marrying Vanya does not make her a part of high society. Ani shows that she is from the lower class every time with her hair, makeup, clothing, and most importantly, her profession.

Sean Baker, as in his previous films, centers on those who try to make a living by selling their bodies and the dynamics of this world in Anora as well. The scenes where Ani experiences with three men she does not know while looking for Vanya harshly reflect society's ruthless perspective on sex workers. While Ani walks the streets in pursuit of her dream, Vanya returns to nightclubs as if nothing happened. The film reflects the poor segment through Ani and the lives of the rich through Vanya in their clearest form, without caricaturing them and without resorting to agitation.

The strong woman Ani we watch at the beginning of the film turns into someone full of disappointment at the end of the film.

Anora says, 'like to like.' While underlining the distinction between rich and poor with thick lines, it emphasizes that happy endings only exist in fairy tales.

We don't know what happens in the rest of the Cinderella fairy tale, but we watch the glass slipper of Anora, who tries to realize her own fairy tale, break.

Let's end the article with the lines of our great poet Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca...

“We humans have remained separate,

The borders of countries have divided our happiness;

We humans have remained separate,

The brotherhood of birds in the sky,

And of wolves on the ground.”

News Source: 12punto