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Joy (2018)

Joy poster
Directed by
Sudabeh Mortezai
Genre
drama film
Country
Austria
Runtime
1h 40m
Rated
18
Rating
5.9 of 10 from 47 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb

How it feels

A young Nigerian woman in Vienna works as a sex worker to pay off debts and support her family back home in Nigeria and her daughter. The film follows her daily struggles and the difficult choices she must make to survive.

grittyseriousmethodicalmelancholicintimatetenserestrainedgrounded

What happens

Joy is a 2018 Austrian drama film directed and written by Sudabeh Mortezai. The plot revolves around Joy (Anwulika Alphonsus), a young Nigerian woman who walks the streets to pay off debts while also supporting her family in Nigeria and her daughter in Vienna. It was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. However, the film was disqualified in November 2019, with the Academy stating that the film had too much dialogue in English. The filmmakers disputed the disqualification, arguing that when the parts of the dialogue in Nigerian Pidgin that are unintelligible to English speakers are counted separately from English, English constitutes less than 50% of the entire dialogue and thus the film should be eligible, but the Academy stood by its initial decision. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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