{"id":54295,"date":"2023-07-22T15:57:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T12:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=54295"},"modified":"2023-07-22T15:58:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T12:58:03","slug":"jerusalem-film-festival-2023-ama-gloria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=54295","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem Film Festival 2023: \u00c0ma Gloria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening with the bright, gentle, colors of summer, in an animated sequence whose broad strokes of gouache evoke the work of a child\u2019s hand, \u00c0ma Gloria<\/em> tells a familiar story from a different perspective, with warmth and honesty. Written and directed by Marie Amachoukeli (Party Girl<\/em><\/a>, with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis, 2014) in her solo debut, the film follows a turning point in the life of 6-year-old Cl\u00e9o. \u00a0A jumble of curls, energy, deep brown eyes, sweet affection, and a ready laugh, Cl\u00e9o is vividly portrayed by Louise Mauroy-Panzani, whose eloquent gaze and body language convey the intricate, inner world of a child\u2019s thoughts and feelings. Over the course of the film, Cl\u00e9o will learn to see herself and others differently, with the painterly animated sequences as a recurring motif that reflects her emotional landscape.<\/p>\n

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Ama Gloria\/Photo courtesy of PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Living with her loving yet often absent widowed father Arnaud (Arnaud Rebotini), Cl\u00e9o has been cared for by Gloria (Il\u00e7a Moreno Zego) since she was very young. Not quite a mother, yet the closest Cl\u00e9o has to a mother, an employee who is almost a member of the family, Gloria has raised Cl\u00e9o with love, to be a happy, confident child. When she falls on the playground and scrapes her hands, Gloria is the one Cl\u00e9o turns to for comfort. In a telling moment, an urgent phone call takes Gloria away, and Cl\u00e9o, distressed and wanting Gloria by her side, is left with no alternative but to blow on her own hands to ease the pain. It is the beginning of a lesson Cl\u00e9o will now need to learn. When Gloria\u2019s mother dies suddenly, she will have to return home to Cape Verde, for now there is no one there to care for her own children \u2013 Fernanda (Abnara Gomes Varela) and C\u00e9sar (Fredy Gomes Tavares).<\/p>\n

Although Cl\u00e9o enjoys a loving relationship with her father, the parting from Gloria is heartbreaking, and only mitigated by the promise of a visit to Gloria over the summer. It is there in Cape Verde that Cl\u00e9o is confronted with a view of Gloria she has not seen before, that of an independent individual, with children, friends, and plans of her own. Gloria\u2019s daughter Nanda is pregnant and needs Gloria\u2019s help and guidance. Her son C\u00e9sar feels that he doesn\u2019t know his mother at all; Cl\u00e9o is the reason for his mother\u2019s absence, and he resents her presence, sending sullen looks her way. Gloria has plans for her future, the money she has saved she plans to build a hotel, and the construction is already under way. The connection between Gloria and Cl\u00e9o is as strong as ever, as Gloria tells her friend, \u201cShe is like a daughter to me.\u201d But Gloria\u2019s future is in Cape Verde, with her children, her hotel, and perhaps a loving partner, while Cl\u00e9o will return to France and her father.<\/p>\n

The film explores the intricate tangle of feelings in the relationship between Cl\u00e9o and the only mother figure she remembers ever knowing, Gloria. It\u2019s a strange relationship that is marked by its transactional framework \u2013 Gloria was hired and paid to care for Cl\u00e9o, yet that coexists with the sincere attachment that developed between the two. Cl\u00e9o, who is accustomed to being the center of Gloria\u2019s focus, realizes in Cape Verde that Gloria loves her, but Cl\u00e9o is not Gloria\u2019s entire world. It\u2019s a shift in perspective that inevitably comes to us all as we grow up, that those around us – and it can feel especially shocking regarding one\u2019s parents – have lives apart from us and our concerns. The camera often comes very close, emphasizing the intimacy between Gloria and Cl\u00e9o, and the closeups on Cl\u00e9o feel as though they take us deep into the raw material of her feelings. Mauroy-Panzani depicts all Cl\u00e9o\u2019s confusion, anger, heartache, and conflicting feelings in the slow and painful process towards acceptance, it\u2019s a dazzling and moving performance from such a young actor.<\/p>\n

Il\u00e7a Moreno Zego is warm, wise, and wonderful as Gloria, who tries to imbue Cl\u00e9o with the understanding she will need to move on. While there have been many films that explore the relationship between nannies and the children they care for, \u00c0ma Gloria<\/em> explores perspectives rarely seen with its close focus on Cl\u00e9o\u2019s feelings and her turbulent path towards acceptance and steps along the way to her own independence. The film delivers a very strong message as well in setting the main part of the narrative in Cape Verde, literally on Gloria\u2019s terrain, showing her home, children, family, friends, language, landscape, and culture \u2013 all she had to leave behind for many years, in caring for someone else\u2019s child.<\/p>\n

\u00c0ma Gloria<\/em> was awarded the Nechama Rivilin Award for Best International Film at the 40th<\/sup> Jerusalem Film Festival 2023.<\/p>\n

\u00c0ma Gloria<\/em><\/p>\n

France 2023 | 83 minutes | French, Creole | Hebrew, English subtitles<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Marie Amachoukeli; Cinematography: In\u00e8s Tabarin; Editor: Suzana Pedro; Music: Fanny Martin; Cast: Louise Mauroy-Panzani, Il\u00e7a Moreno Zego, Abnara Gomes Varela, Fredy Gomes Tavares, Arnaud Rebotini, Domingos Borges Almeida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening with the bright, gentle, colors of summer, in an animated sequence whose broad strokes of gouache evoke the work of a child\u2019s hand, \u00c0ma Gloria tells a familiar story from a different perspective, with warmth and honesty. Written and directed by Marie Amachoukeli (Party Girl, with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis, 2014) in her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[368,264,131,100,96,27,369],"class_list":["post-54295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-caregiver","tag-childhood","tag-coming-of-age","tag-festival","tag-film","tag-jerusalem-film-festival","tag-nanny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}