When Motherhood becomes a Construct - Interview with director Marie Amachoukeli

Words: Arijana Zeric

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When little Cléo is separated from her nanny Gloria in director Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria, she cannot cope with her absence, and oscillates between sadness and tantrums. Eventually, they are reunited in Cape Verde, Gloria’s homeland, where the two get to spend some time together before their final goodbye. What sounds like a sweet coming of age story has a much darker and far more serious background in history and economics. 

The reality is that most full-time nannies in France who take care of middle class families’ kids aren't able to take care of their own. The emotional trauma that ensues on both sides is a taboo topic, and it is delicately unraveled by Amachoukeli throughout her film. Here she tells us about stylistic choices, false maternal instincts and why we should broaden our concept of family. 

Arijana Zeric: The first thing I noticed about the film were those vibrant colours… did you shoot on 35mm?

Marie Amachoukeli: Oh no, I would have loved that. I wanted to make it look more pop and colourful. In France it’s currently very fashionable to recreate a 70s look and I wanted the opposite. I didn't want any grain, just a full-frame focal length with attention to skin. Because if we used a grainy effect, the film would become sad, dark, anxiety-provoking, so we had to do the reverse to give a little brightness to the melancholy. The idea was to create a contrast between the very colourful images and the deeper sentiment of the film.

AZ: Was it a stylistic choice to emphasise the intimacy between Cléo and Gloria?

MA: It is not a choice in the sense of style but in the way of shooting to recreate sensations as if we could touch, grab things, and to create intimacy right away. If we zoom onto the faces, the viewer has no other choice but to identify with the little girl. We ourselves become this child who is experiencing something, and we feel the same thing. There are people who don't like it. They want cinema to be of scope, very wide, I don't have this relationship with the image. Like the little one, I am myopic, so I really like the blur. I find it natural. If everything is clear, I don't understand. I think it's a trick.

AZ: What’s your personal link to Ama Gloria?

MA: I was raised by a woman to whom I dedicated this film, she raised me until I was six years old. One day she left, because she had to return to her country for reasons which are almost the same as in the film. That day I refused to say goodbye, because I didn't understand how it was possible. We are still very close and she always calls me “my daughter”. What is this bond that we don’t talk about? I never asked myself the question who she was or where she really came from. What was her story? What did she have to do to come to France? I wanted to find out about all these nannies we see everywhere. They are in the parks, in the streets, they are in our homes, raising our children. But for some strange reason, which is a bit taboo, we don't know much. All these women had to leave their own children. I have interviewed many nannies, all of them have children that they cannot raise, who are entrusted to grandmothers, uncles, other people on site...and they are obliged to leave them to raise ours. These are not individual cases and we never talk about them. How come half of the women in the world don't have enough money to raise their own children, and raise ours? In Paris I have a lot of friends like me, a little bohemian, they have nannies, and they never ask questions. Because there is something extremely difficult and taboo behind that. I wanted this film to take the point of view of the child but also from the other side, the nanny’s homeland, which we usually don’t see and don’t want to see.

AZ: What part of the world do the women tend to come from?

MA: Everywhere. From Morocco, Chile, Mexico, China, Thailand…. There is a post-colonial background. We went to Africa, Asia…and we considered it normal to have people at our service. It's the end of colonialism so we said to ourselves it's the end of injustice when in fact, it continues.

AZ: The film emphasises that family can be found outside of its biological connection...

MA: In fact the film says motherhood is not necessarily the family or genetic bond. Of course that can be the case but the maternal bond is a construction. It could be aunts, uncles… we need to broaden the concept of family. For example in the film, the girl Fernanda has difficulty with motherhood, even though she gave birth to her child. We love people because we build relationships with them, because time passes, because we took care. I don't believe in the idea of maternal instinct. I think it's a hoax to encourage women to stay at home and take care of children.

AZ: At the end we see a tender goodbye. What should come next?

MA: The film tries to show a “successful” goodbye, and this happens through the liberation of both. There is now the possibility of happiness afterwards. The little girl has gained a new awareness, she understands that she is now more stable, because she has been raised and loved by that woman.

AZ: How did you find this little girl?

MA: I found her by chance in the street. When you do a children’s casting you have to go through an agency, but I saw her playing with other kids, we did a test and I thought she was great.

AZ: I assume she has both parents?

MA: Yes and a Moroccan nanny. So she was completely able to identify with her role. There are no actors in this film, all the people in Cap Verde are locals. The father is a DJ, the nanny, Gloria, is really a nanny – she left her three children in Cape Verde to come to France to be a nanny.

ÀMA GLORIA opens in cinemas on 14 June and is available on BFI Player from 22 July.