Ama Gloria

Though there isn’t much about it that really stands out (outside of one particularly striking performance), this was still a solid film about the relationship between a young French girl and her Cape Verdean nanny. Director Marie Amachoukeli tends to fill the 4:3 frame with tight close-ups of her actors (the film is probably like 75 percent close-ups), a conceit that could have made the movie feel claustrophobic, but really just serves to enhance its lived-in performances and character work. As for the aforementioned striking performance, that belongs to six-year-old Louise Mauroy-Panzani, whose work here is downright remarkable. It’s rare to see such a distinct sense of authenticity from a performer that young; her chemistry with Ilça Moreno Zego goes a long way towards making the film work as well as it does.

**1/2 out of ****