áma Gloria                          4 stars

From France comes the movie áma Gloria directed by Marie Amachoukeli in her first time directing solo. We meet six-year-old Cléo who is cared for full time by nanny Gloria, a native of Cape Verde. Cléo loves Gloria as she is the only mother she has known since her real mother died when Cléo was a baby. Gloria has her own family in Cape Verde, but sees them only occasionally. Being a nanny in France is the only way she can earn money to support them. But then a family tragedy back home means that Gloria must return to Cape Verde permanently, meaning she must say goodbye to little Cléo. In order to lessen the pain for the six-year-old, her father agrees to letting Cléo stay with Gloria in Cape Verde for one last summer together. It is a touching relationship between the two main characters told both with the lens and animation sequences to illustrate Cléo as a baby with Gloria and life in Cape Verde. Both actors did an amazing job in bringing out how close they are. In the Q and A the director told how the young girl, Louise Mauroy-Panzani was the first girl that auditioned which is amazing since it normally takes a year to find the right child actor. When the part of the nanny was cast the director rewrote to screenplay to set it in Cape Verde, the actress’ home country. The movie did not premiere at Sundance, but appeared previously at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie was in French and Creole. This was one of my favorites.