Anora is a vivacious Cannes victor and a fitting end to a

Sean Baker’s story of an erotic dancer who marries a Russian oligarch makes a terrific surprise Palme d’Or winner – though more reward for Mohammad Rasoulof might have felt better

This was a Cannes that turned out to be about love, and the Palme d’Or went to a love story that knocks down the whole idea of a Cinderella romance, while also, in some mysterious and delicate way, passionately believing in it.

Sean Baker’s Anora is superbly acted by its star, Mikey Madison, who plays an erotic dancer and escort in New York called Ani (short for Anora) who finds herself in an exclusive commercial relationship with the wastrel son of a Russian oligarch, called Ivan, played by Mark Eidelstein.