Talk:Anora (film)

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Ani's ethnicity

@Midwood123: Hello there. What type of hyphenated American is Anora? Your edit summary said her surname isn't Uzbek, so I'm confused. I see that this is not the first time this issue has come up, so I'm going to identify some sourcing on both sides for clarity.

News reports/reviews saying Anora is Uzbek-American: 1) Time, Rachel Sonis 2) Los Angeles Times, Glenn Whipp 3) The New Yorker, Justin Chang 4) NPR, also Justin Chang 5) The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney 6) The AV Club, Emma Keates 7) Maxim, unnamed staffers 8) RogerEbert.com, Ben Kenigsberg

Sources saying she is of Russian ethnicity or Russian-American: 1) Sean Baker told NPR that "She is ethnic Russian, so she's from one of the post-Soviet countries," which just adds to the confusion. 2) David Ehrlich, IndieWire 3) David Fear, Rolling Stone 4) Fran Hoepfner, Vulture 5) Radhika Seth, Vogue 6) RogerEbert.com, Tomris Laffly

Fundamentally, I agree with you that Uzbekistan is never mentioned in the movie, only Russia/Russian. But given that a number of media sources are nonetheless calling her Uzbek-American, it sounds like Neon said that Anora was Uzbek-American in the press kit (which I can't find; unlike Megalopolis (film), there doesn't appear to be a press kit posted on the Cannes website).

Ultimately, I think the easiest thing to do is to call her an "Uzbek-American of Russian ethnicity," although I admit that's a mouthful.

Thanks in advance for any comments. Namelessposter (talk) 01:26, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Namelessposter Hi, thanks for seeking to clarify this. I saw the film yesterday and there is nothing in it to indicate that she is Uzbek. Uzbeks are, of course, a distinct central Asian, Turkic and Muslim ethnic group and usually have Turkic last names and identifying traits. Anora doesn't have any of that anywhere in the film. Her surname is identified as Mikheeva which just sounds like a typical Russian-language name and not tied to Uzbeks or Uzbekistan at all. She mentions in the movie that her mother lives in Miami and that her grandmother spoke no English, so it sounds like it is implied that her family immigrated a while ago (maybe 70s to early 2000s) while the ethnic Uzbek immigration generally is much more recent. This is all confirmed by Baker himself telling NPR that she is ethnic Russian.

I understand and agree that the Uzbek part is mentioned in a lot of media sources but I think what is actually in the movie and said by the director (with NPR also being a reliable source) should be matter more than what was reported by news outlets in anticipation to the film (especially when we can't find what those news outlets based it on, for all we know they may have just looked at this wikipedia page and misreported it as a result).

I don't think it is really my position but rather Baker's own position and what is contained in the film. Maybe we can put something into the production section that she was initially identified as Uzbek by news outlets before the film came out, but that Baker later clarified in the NPR interview that she was ethnic Russian and not from any one FSU country. But explicitly identifying her as an Uzbek character is just not accurate. Midwood123 (talk) 02:06, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, as you responded I came across some more media sources saying that Anora is Russian-American. I retract my earlier statement that there is a media consensus that she is Uzbek. Namelessposter (talk) 02:10, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

To your actual suggestion, Baker, as the director-writer-editor, is plainly the highest authority on the matter. I think our best bet right now is to modify the cast list to use Baker's specific words, and to leave out any mention of being Uzbek-American because it doesn't seem to play a role in the movie in any way. Namelessposter (talk) 02:14, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree on Baker being the highest authority and am fine with just leaving it out, as you said. The only reason I think there might be value in specifically writing in the Production section that she is not Uzbek after all is because there was apparently some controversy regarding this on Uzbekistani social media due to the initial reporting. It seems from the other entry on this talk page that a producer on the film had even specified in an earlier edit that she is ethnic Russian and that publications that identified her as Uzbek were incorrect. (Of course, there is the conflict-of-interest issue with that producer, but it adds to the overall evidence about this having been a case of news outlets reporting her ethnicity incorrectly.)

But all that or not is neither here nor there for me, as long as we don't incorrectly identify her as Uzbek. Midwood123 (talk) 02:27, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. I've edited the main page to emphasize Baker's statement while making note of the contrary reporting. Feel free to rephrase as appropriate, of course. Namelessposter (talk) 03:01, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm with y'all that she should be listed as Russian and Baker is the highest authority. If someone wants to think she's Uzbek, that's one of the former soviet countries, that's a former Soviet republic, but she just as well might have been from somewhere else. Kire1975 (talk) 03:16, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Uzbek or not Uzbek?

There have been several edits going back and forth - here, here, here and here, among others - about whether the title character is Uzbek or not. There was some initial reporting that she was, but there appears to be no mention in the movie of this and her surname is not Uzbek according to some editors.

I would like to point out one of these edit summaries, by User:Casperthekid reads: I'm the producer on the film and this is the correct information about the main character. An incorrect synopsis has been published by some publications and states the incorrect information.. It's obviously WP:COI and they were given a warning, but it seems pretty authoritative.

Then again, this is Wikipdea, and we do go by what the sources and both Time magazine and Los Angeles Times repeated that the character was Uzbek three or four days ago.

Potentially involved, or interested, editors may include User:Midwood123 and User:Namelessposter. If this is going to result in persistent edit disputes, we should at least acknowledge it on the talk page and try to come to some consensus. Kire1975 (talk) 02:11, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I think our ships may have passed in the night, as Midwood123 and I have already been having a productive conversation on this page regarding this issue. I would be fine just saying Anora is of Russian ethnicity given Baker's comments. Namelessposter (talk) 02:16, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wild. I swear it was blank when I started writing this. I was delayed by something, it took over an hour to post. Ships passed in the night indeed. Kire1975 (talk) 02:51, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]