no, Anora is not Russian state propaganda
someone's got to poop the rage party and that someone is me
GUYS I’M BACK. where have I been? who cares.
No matter how much the part of my brain that tells me I have nothing interesting to say is, things I am fully qualified to discuss just keep happening. I’m here to talk about Anora, but this is not just a review.
Anora is the latest picture from my favourite director Sean Baker, a person who specialises in telling the bleakest stories whilst showing us that moments of beauty, wonder, and happiness are still possible even in the most straitened circumstances. Dark Americana, some call it, or anti-fairy tales; his blisteringly honest depictions of the American underclass who are often invisible to the general public (Black trans sex workers in Tangerine; dirt poor single mothers in The Florida Project; lecherous retired porn stars in Red Rocket). His films are bleak and miserable by design. Trying to be optimistic and happy-go-lucky in the US is a delusional approach, and Baker’s films are one of the few places where one can see honest portrayals of the downtrodden in a sympathetic light.
In Anora, high-end stripper Ani (Mikey Madison) gets tangled up with the spoiled yet charming son of a rich Russian oligarch, Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn). They get married in Vegas, causing a tabloid scandal back in Russia; Vanya’s parents send their henchmen (Yura Borisov as Igor, Vacha Tovmasyan as Garnik, and regular Baker star Karren Karagulian as Toros) to track the two horny lovebirds down to force them to divorce. There’s just one problem - they can’t find Vanya. The gang are forced to undertake a rather ridiculous chase through New York as they attempt to find a needle (the heavy drinking, spoiled brat, party animal rich kid) in a haystack (the biggest city in America).
I’d gone into Anora blind - I don’t think I’d even seen the trailer - and once I realised that Russian characters were a significant part of the story, it got me thinking. This film is set in the present, but is it a present where Russia is currently invading and attempting to colonise Ukraine? It turns out that the film is in fact set in 2019 (indicated by Ani’s juul, which are now banned), a time where Russia wasn’t quite yet public enemy number 1, despite everything it had been up to in and around Ukraine before 2022.
I wondered how exactly Borisov and Edeylshteyn were able to work on an American film set, whether some sort of special visa was required for Russian citizens to work in the states, whether maybe they actually just had American passports and I was trying to make discourse out of nothing. Ha! It’s all discourse, stupid.
Anyway, it turns out there are no travel restrictions, and Russians can essentially come and go as they please in the states. Which surprised me, for some reason.
I woke up to the news this morning that Anora picked up FIVE Oscars - one for Mikey Madison for Best Actress, and a record breaking four for Sean Baker - Best Picture, Director, Editing, and Original Screenplay. I went to see it for a second time last night to confirm that yes, this is my favourite film of the year. Mikey Madison is incredible, and I hope the film gives Karren Karagulian the recognition he deserves (I can’t believe he wasn’t nominated for anything). The casting, as ever with Baker’s films, is perfect. I kept a close eye on Borisov and Edeylshteyn as I had this in my drafts ready to work on, and I really couldn’t imagine anyone else playing Igor and Vanya. Eydelshteyn’s effervescent excitement as he gallops across the beach at Coney Island feels so real, because it probably was. A huge project for a young actor abroad for the first time, channeled into his character. Borisov punctuates his character’s stoic silence with truly comedic moments, perfectly juxtaposing the tracksuited gopnik vibe with almost nihilistic silliness.
Anora has won so many awards - the Palme D’Or, two BAFTAs, and five Oscars amongst 75 wins - that its list of accolades needs its own Wikipedia page. But the inclusion of Russian actors who are keeping schtum about Ukraine has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. And that’s valid. But is it fair to make the film and its success just about that?
Who are Mark Eydelshteyn and Yura Borisov? Let’s start with the former: the 23 year old floppy haired “Russian Timothee Chalamet” had only starred in Russian productions before now, and was actually recommended for the role by Borisov. He had to ask his drama school teachers for permission to skip three months of class for a “secret project” he wasn’t allowed to talk about that eventually became Anora. His first time in the US was when he landed in New York for shooting. His biggest credits before Anora were Russian coming-of-age drama The Land of Sasha in 2022 (which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, a week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), and sci-fi teen movie One Hundred Years Ahead in 2024. The Land of Sasha was produced by Central Partnership, a film production company which is a subsidiary of Gazprom, Russia’s state owned gas company. It was partially filmed in occupied Crimea.
Borisov, 32, is a little more established, but all of his previous work have been Russian productions, with the exception of Compartment No. 6 (a Finland-Estonia-Germany-Russia coproduction. By the way, go watch it - it’s superb). Anora was also his first time stepping foot in the land of the free. His previous credits include crime drama The Bull and AK-47, a biopic about the eponymous inventor of the Kalashnikov, plus minor roles in T-34, Union of Salvation, and Invasion.
Borisov, being older, most established, and crucially, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, has come under scrutiny in recent months. People have a lot of things to say, with many accusing Anora as a whole of being a piece of pro-Russian propaganda, despite the Russian state having nothing to do with it. And look, I get why The Kyiv Independent is saying this, as they correctly point out that scenes from AK-47 were also illegally filmed in occupied Crimea. Yes, Borisov has appeared in films from the production company Central Partnership; AK-47 was partially funded by Russian state weapons manufacturer Rostec. And yes, Borisov has appeared in patriotic war films which portray Russia in a positive light. The war, however, is the World War 2 - where Russia did actually contribute to beating the Nazis and were allies of the West. It’s the Russian equivalent of Dunkirk, or Saving Private Ryan, or The Battle of Britain, or Pearl Harbour, or The Dambusters, or any of the literal hundreds of patriotic war movies made by former Allied nations. And before you come for me saying “omg Celeste how are you defending the Soviet Army and its war crimes???” - the British, French, Americans, you name it, did plenty of abhorrent shit and murder during the war too. You’ve just been conditioned to see it as a necessary evil in the fight against fascism.
Another anti-Borisov argument is that he appears in “pro-Kremlin” Russian films. Indeed, that is the case - more often than not in Russia, you’re either in a pro-Kremlin film or you’re not in a film at all. It’s a place in which the state and its various structures play a much bigger part in public life than where we’re from. Culture is tightly controlled. At least Russia keeps it in house - in the West there is truly evil financial backing from multinationals and therefore it feels a bit more far away. Why on earth is Shell sponsoring British Cycling? Do you know how many pies BAE Systems has its bloodstained fingers in? The West simply outsources its funding to create a distance and mirage of legitimacy.
While much noise is being made about, let’s be honest, just AK-47, New York Times writer Ivan Nechepurenko has actually bothered to do the research and look into Borisov’s full list of credits:
In three movies he made in 2021, Borisov played parts that could potentially alienate him from the Russian authorities. He played a secret agent trying to redeem his sins in “Captain Volkonogov,” an anti-totalitarian film that was effectively banned in Russia. He was featured in “Petrov’s Flu,” a phantasmagorial movie by Kirill Serebrennikov, the darling of Russia’s anti-Kremlin intelligentsia in exile. And he appeared as a Russian mercenary in Syria in “Mama, I’m Home,” a rare film to explore the Kremlin’s shadow war for influence in the Middle East and its effects at home in Russia.
I’m sure that you are as shocked as I am to discover that this whole shabang has nuance and that only Russian-speaking journalists made the effort to switch over to Russian-language Wikipedia to look at his credits that squash the narrative that Borisov is some sort of agent of Russian state propaganda. The date matters too - 2021. I think it’s fairly clear why Borisov chose “safer” projects from 2022 onwards.
SO: is Anora’s success a win for Russia?
This is not a Russian film. This film is not about Russia or Russians. This film is American, with Russian characters, that portray Russians but especially the America as a whole in a very seedy light. Baker is not blowing smoke up anyone’s arse here. Most interestingly of all - and I hadn’t realised this - the reaction to Borisov’s nomination in Russia was mostly indifference and then, confusion. As The Moscow Times amusingly reports:
When asked by reporters if Borisov’s Oscar nomination was a signal that the West’s “cancellation” of Russian culture was over, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov simply replied “No.”
Why this reaction? Why not take this free win that just landed in their lap? Well, as Novaya Gazeta points out, it doesn’t exactly fit the Russian state narrative that the West is determined to cancel anything and everything Russian. The Kremlin had nothing to do with this film. Baker is famously and independent filmmaker. Borisov’s nomination, which one would assume would be a moment of national pride, also functions to undermine Russia’s assertion that the West hates them and everything about them. As a result, state television channels - where most Russians get their news - barely mentioned Borisov’s big moment. Few public figures congratulated him. Embracing Borisov too much risks the state losing control on their “us and them” narrative.
So is Borisov pro-Russia? Is silence complicity? I’m afraid that as the boring academic in the room, I have to tell you that it’s not really as simple as that. Borisov was in fact a signatory on a public statement issued by the now defunct Russian Cinematographers Union KinoSoyuz, which was released on 24th February 2022, the day of the invasion. However, he’s not said anything since.
I think Western liberal minds expect a lot from famous people. What does a public statement from Eydelshteyn or Borisov achieve? To many a Guardian reader, I’m sure that there is hope that it is the first domino to fall in a larger process which mobilises the Russian people to topple their megalomaniacal leader, transition to democracy, and live happily ever after in eternal peace. I’m afraid to tell you that neither actor, nor anyone, has that sort of power. What would happen if these two said anything would be excessively long prison sentences in a penal colony. So is it up to Sean Baker, cushioned by being American, to make a stand? Not really, because that would still land Eydelshteyn, Borisov, and every other Russian involved in the film’s production in prison too.
These are not actors in exile, or dual nationals, or Western-leaning Russians. They do not exist in the Western sphere beyond this film and we can’t put our Western expectations on them. As I mentioned earlier, their first trip to the US was to film Anora.
Oh but you’re being soooooo overdramatic, Celeste! People should say things! Ok sure, let’s see what happens when people say things. In February 2022 dual Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina made a one-off donation of about €50 to a charity which either supports victims of the war, or arms the Ukrainian military, depending on who is asking. She lives and works in LA, but on a family trip home to Russia last summer she was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason. She has not been included in any prisoner swaps. The US can’t really do much even though she is an American citizen.
Now imagine a high-profile Russian actor with no emotional or diplomatic ties to another country, and no desire to start a new life in exile, deciding to make a stand? Do Borisov or Eydelshteyn even know that they’re supposed to have these opinions? Unless their public view on the war in Ukraine is total support, they know that they shouldn’t say anything. And you’re allowed to feel frustrated about this, but wishing decades in a penal colony on some actors you don’t know isn’t going to get you what you want.
In the process of writing this piece I came across an interesting little tidbit that sort of proves that the media just exists to feed the outrage machine. I’m sure you’ve all heard of that great right-wing British rag, The Daily Telegraph - the respectable newspaper for middle class people who hate immigrants. The main op-ed on Anora is by Liam Kelly, who declares that “Anora’s stars are tools in Russia’s propaganda machine: the Oscars scandal Hollywood is ignoring”. As it’s the Telegraph, this article is behind a paywall, so I can’t read it. Unless I use my magical tricks.
Now imagine my surprise when I headed to archive.ph to try and scale the paywall, and discover that the url - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2024/11/05/anora-oscars-ukraine-mikey-madison/ - brings up a completely different article altogether, written by the same person.
The original version of the article from November 2024 (also available here on PressReader) is, to my utter amazement, a rather balanced take on this topic. Specifically, Kelly writes of Eydelshteyn and Borisov’s lack of commentary on the war in Ukraine:
On one hand, this is understandable. The stars live and work in Russia, under an authoritarian government that brooks no dissent and is able to penetrate almost every aspect of life. They will be concerned that, if they step out of line, they or their families may suffer. On the other, the conspiracy of silence is jarring when juxtaposed with the billions of pounds from the West that have poured into helping the Ukrainian military fend off the invaders, and given the fact that Russia is an international pariah.
Naturally, Ukrainians working in the film industry aren’t thrilled about Anora or its Russian actors. However, pinning all the responsibility on the two Russian frontmen is giving them a bit too much credit. They have no power or influence here, really. As Kelly reports:
Ksenia Bugrimova, who created the Ukrainian-British Association of Screen Industry Professionals after the full-scale invasion, tells me that she does not blame Eydelshteyn or Borisov and believes that, instead, they are pawns in a much bigger game. “These actors have become tools of propaganda in the promotion of the image of Russia,” she says. “They are great actors. They have done previous international works but now they are just tools for this propaganda machine.”
Is this a classic “separating the art from the artist” argument? Is cracking down on expressions of Russian culture the way forward? Soviet defector and retired ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov (father of Anna Baryshnikov, who plays Daisy in Love Lies Bleeding), speaking to The Guardian in 2022, argues that “for people in those exposed positions, neutrality is a powerful statement”. And you’re allowed to not like that point of view. Baryshnikov can speak freely, safe and sound in the US. Not everyone has that luxury.
This isn’t just an arts problem - discourse on Russian and Belorussian participation in other forms of public life continues to rage on. Has banning Russian athletes from taking part in international sporting events had any impact whatsoever? Disregarding an entire culture to score political points is not going to topple Putin. You’ll be seeing Daniil Medvedev, Aryna Sabalenka, Alexander Zverev (not actually German, also a rapist), Andrey Rublev, Mirra Andreeva, and Elena Rybakina (not actually Kazakh) playing all the Grand Slams as usual this year, because sports fans are able to see them as individuals and not representatives of their country - which they are! Even more so than actors.
The individualistic libertarian principles that the US was built on expects us to zoom in on individuals and hold them responsible for big decisions that they have little to no influence over. Want to ban Russians from American life? Then reinstate travel bans so that the actors can’t enter the country. Lobby Hollywood to prevent directors to tell Russian stories or use Russian actors. That will never happen of course, not just because it’s short sighted and unrealistic, but because the biggest Putin fan of all is sat on his fat arse in the Oval Office, telling Ukraine it was their fault for being invaded in the first place and trying to humiliate Zelensky on the world stage. It’s America who has a Russia problem.
Before you come for me and accuse me of being a Russophile who doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine, I’d like to reiterate that I am the co-founder of an NGO that supports Ukrainian refugees (please consider making a donation or volunteering for DCA Ukraine) and I have bachelors and masters degrees in East European Studies. Learning about other cultures has the power to humanise them, but also to hold a mirror up to where you’re from. Studying Russia and the former USSR allows me to understand the complex and multifaceted societies which emerged from the embers of communism. It also shows me that the sphere in which I exists, that transatlantic US-UK alliance, is really not so different. The United States in particular is quite indistinguishable from Russia. Russia can only dream of being as good at colonisation and regime change as America is. Both are, frankly, trash countries run by maniacs, with no change in sight.
The US picks on small or less powerful countries without the ability to mount any sort of defence - which, admittedly, is what Russia thought it was doing in Ukraine, underestimating Ukraine’s ability to mobilise and fight back in the most spectacular fashion possible, humiliating Russia in the extreme. Russia and America interfere in foreign elections. Russia and America maintain a powerful presence abroad where they are absolutely not welcome to this day. Russia and America think the world should be a certain way and will stop and nothing to make that world happen.
What bothers me the most about the Western press trying to make Anora about Russia and Russia only is that it takes away from everything else that is going on (I’m giving the Ukrainian press a free pass here, I’m not in any place to criticise them or their views). Sean Baker tells the stories of the downtrodden, and has been a vocal supporter of sex workers and their rights for years now. He creates stars out of the people he finds. He is a real talent maker and without his style of casting many incredible actors - Brittney Rodriguez, Karren Karegulian, Susanna Son, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, and countless more - would have not had an opportunity to show the world how incredible they are. Baker has been a vocal ally of the trans community for a long time, and goes to great lengths to ensure that his characters are portrayed in ways that the community they represent approves of. Baker made sure to thank the sex worker community in his speech last night, acknowledging their bravery in sharing their stories with him, allowing him to turn their stories into art. By contrast, the people accepting the Oscar for Emilia Perez last night - a film about a trans woman - didn’t bother using their acceptance speech to show their support for the trans community, who are one of the most vulnerable in the US. Mikey Madison’s breathtaking performance, up there with Demi Moore in The Substance, was one of the best of the year and she wholeheartedly deserves her Academy Award. It’s discourse on men - on the surface, about Borisov, but really it’s about Putin - overshadowing the incredible achievements of a woman.
And it’s not just about Mikey. Sean Baker not only directed, but wrote the screenplay, produced, cast, and edited Anora. Most movies have at least one different person in each role - and he did all five, often joined by his wife and regular collaborator Samantha Quan. The sheer amount of work Sean Baker has done here is astounding. He is a truly independent filmmaker, taking the reins everywhere he can. He earned those Oscars, and anyone who loves movies should appreciate his hard work.
To conclude - we can’t have nice things, more than one thing can be true at once, and sending Russian actors to a gulag doesn’t achieve anything. As Kevin M. F. Platt writing in the New York Times points out, cancelling anything and everything Russian only homogenises the country more and overshadows the rich cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of an absolutely enormous country filled with a wide variety of different people. Putin wants there to just be one Russia, and refusing to view Russia with any sort of nuance is exactly what he wants. So let’s be a little smarter than that.