Sean Baker was at home in Los Angeles writing the script for what would become his new movie, “ Anora ,” and he needed a little inspiration. His title character, Ani, had seen her circumstances change wildly — a first-generation Russian American sex worker, she finds herself in a chaotic romantic relationship with the son of a Russian oligarch and living in his gaudy, palatial home in Brooklyn. For Baker, the house needed to be just right — to look like a place a Russian billionaire would stay when in New York.
Baker wanted “the biggest and best mansion in Brighton Beach.” “I Google, and this thing pops up,” Baker says. “It’s in Mill Basin, and it happened to be owned by a beautiful Russian American family who purchased it from the Russian oligarch it was designed for.
They were proud of their home and wanted it shown on the big screen.” Baker’s films have long explored American communities that other directors might not touch: the dingy after-hours L.A.
of “Tangerine,” the destitute Disney World-adjacent sliver of Orlando of “The Florida Project,” the sunbaked and downcast coastal Texas of “Red Rocket.” Along the way, he’s earned a reputation as one of the most boundary-pushing filmmakers of his generation. But riskiness comes at a price: For all their virtuosity, his films have yet to break through to the mainstream.
“Anora,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is likely to change that. With a big, beating Brooklyn heart, “Anora.