Anora is an exposition of unyielding class divides

Anora received the Oscar for Best Picture at a time when the Donald Trump administration in the US unofficially declared the American dream dead, imposing instead the idea of Make America Great Again (MAGA).

- Damodar Prasad

To rise above the excruciating circumstances on which we don't have any control and overcome them through sheer determination is what the American dream is, and it is in this way that it connects it to the Cinderella trope.

But, the Trump-and-Musk show has shattered that dream. Anora is an independent movie that depicts the deeper class tensions of American society, wherein Prince Charming arrives from elsewhere and his eventual escape represents the flight of capital in a caricatural way. Mikey Madison's is a compelling performance as Ani, and the director and writer of the movie, Sean Baker, who stands for independent movie making, rightly deserves the Oscar. This movie also has won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Anora is the name of the central character of this movie. She prefers to be called Ani, a sufficiently Americanised name, while she is Russian, and her full name is Anora Mikheeva. Anora means brightness or light, and Ani, in a conversation with Igor, who also comes from underclass circumstances, says that in America names have no meaning. Igor, a Russian henchman who has not cut his roots off like Ani, says that his name has a meaning, which means warrior.

The emptying of meaning from the name was also aspirational, intended to forsake one identity and the past it contained and assume another for a better future.