A stripper gets swept up in a mad, moneyed fantasy in this radiant, sex-positive film from American indie maestro Sean Baker, which won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes. In keeping with his sympathetic, nuanced studies of sex work (see Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket), Anora is impressively, even majestically humane. Shot with sublime sensitivity, it boasts a star-making turn from its gutsy lead, Mikey Madison.

Baker offers us a subversive take on the classic Cinderella-style story in this very adult fairytale. We view events through its protagonist’s enraptured eyes, before the façade of her shiny new situation is ripped back to reveal a chastening reality far from Pretty Woman’s happy-ever-after ending. It is also hilarious.

Going by the name Ani, Anora is a New York-based, Uzbek-American erotic dancer, who is not averse to throwing in a little light (and, ahem, less light) prostitution on the side. Despite the troublesome aspects of her profession and her financial insecurity, she’s an effervescent character who paints on a smile and is never portrayed pityingly. Employed at a popular strip club called Headquarters, Ani has a strong bond with fellow dancer Lulu (Luna Sofía Miranda) and a fierce rivalry with another colleague, Diamond (Lindsey Normington), who she delights in trash-talking.

When Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), the gawky, immature son of a Russian oligarch becomes obsessed with Ani after they meet at the club, the two start seeing each other out of hours, eventually marrying in Vegas on a drink-and-drug-addled whim. Ani is totally caught up in the romance of it all and the unfathomably luxurious lifestyle, with the ferocity of Ivan’s parents’ reaction taking her by surprise. They send in some tough guys to get a handle on the situation, before flying in themselves to force an annulment.

As anyone familiar with Baker’s work will know, he loves a sketchy and feisty scenario and, once Ivan’s family have got wind of the wedding, things get increasingly farcical and funny. The hired heavies are thankfully not remotely up to the task, and Ani runs rings around them. And if a woman hoping that a rich guy will save her sounds dispiritingly unempowered, when faced with adversity Ani shows herself to have ten times the fight of her cowardly new husband, something that is noticed by one of the more friendly enforcers, Igor (Yura Borisov from the excellent Compartment No 6).

Following Baker’s nuanced and fascinating portrait of a problematic protagonist in 2021’s Red Rocket, in Ani he gives us someone who’s much easier to root for, irrespective of the societal judgement she attracts. Madison is best known for TV’s Better Things, where she played Max, the eldest daughter of Pamela Adlon’s single mother, while a small role in Once Upon A Time . . . In Hollywood and a more interesting one in 2022’s Scream put her on the film map.

Madison met with Baker early on in Anora’s development process and Ani was ultimately written with the actress in mind. She brings dignity and personality to a character who does an awful lot of bumping and grinding, while she’s lovingly captured by cinematographer Drew Daniels (who did such a great job on Red Rocket and Trey Edward Shults’ Waves), shooting on 35mm and aping a 70s aesthetic, with Madison’s confidence and charisma positively lighting up the screen. There’s lovely work from Borisov, too, whose performance mainly consists of impressed, hurt or bemused reactions, which he relays beautifully. The hysterical supporting cast includes Baker’s regular collaborator Karren Karagulian, playing the put-upon Toros, who acts as a fixer for Ivan’s parents and has to run out of a christening to intervene.

Baker’s portraits of marginalised characters are a consistent delight and he’s really excelled himself here, balancing high hopes and harsh realities, presenting it all in a fun package, with Take That’s sugary ‘Greatest Day’ the film’s unlikely but pitch-perfect anthem. As in The Florida Project, where six-year-old Moonee found magic all around her despite the precariousness of her motel existence, Ani surrenders herself to a dreamworld, daring to imagine that things could be better. Sometimes it’s all you can do.

Anora is in cinemas now.