“Àma Gloria”, which was released in South Korea on the first Wednesday of 2024 as “The World of Cléo”, is a little but intimate coming-of-age drama revolving around the close relationship between a six-year-old French girl and her dear nanny. As they are spending what will be the last summer between them, we observe more of how much our little heroine is emotionally attached to her nanny, and the movie delivers some bittersweet moments while she comes to face the inevitable end of her good time with the nanny.

The early part of the film succinctly establishes the strong emotional bond between its little heroine and her nanny. Since her mother died when she was very young, Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani) has been raised by a foreign nanny named Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego) for next several years, and Gloria has been pretty much like a mother to Cléo. Although he is often busy and absent due to his work, Cléo’s single father sincerely appreciates what Gloria has done for him and his daughter, and it is apparent to us that she has been accepted as a crucial part of their daily life.

However, there comes an unexpected change via a phone call from Gloria’s hometown in Cape Verde. Gloria’s mother, who has taken care of Gloria’s two children during her absence, died suddenly, and Gloria must return to her hometown for her two children. When she hears about this change from her nanny, Cléo is not pleased to say the least, but at least she tries to be casual about Gloria’s imminent departure on the surface.

Before Gloria leaves for Cape Verde, Cléo is promised that she will be able to visit Gloria’s hometown during the upcoming summer vacation, and, mainly thanks to her stubborn insistence, she is eventually sent to Cape Verde under her father’s agreement. Right from her arrival in Cape Verde, she is warmly greeted by Gloria, and then she is also introduced to Gloria’s two children, who are rather distant to both Gloria and Cléo for understandable reasons.

While quite happy to be with Gloria again, Cléo gradually comes to sense the growing distance between her and Gloria, who now has several matters to deal with as trying to settle down in her hometown. Her older daughter is going to have a baby sooner or later, and her young son is quite resentful about her long absence, though he does not mind Cléo hanging around him from time to time. Gloria has been planning to run a little hotel for tourists, but its construction has been seriously delayed due to some financial problem, and she is relieved to get some help from an old friend of hers, who clearly wants to get closer to her if she allows that.

Naturally, Cléo becomes more and more agitated as her time with Gloria is about to be over. When her grandson is eventually born, Gloria comes to pay more attention to him because he is the one who matters to her most now, and Cléo cannot help but feel angry and jealous as facing this ongoing change of her dear nanny. We are not so surprised when she comes to have a little nasty wish after observing a local spiritual ceremony on Gloria’s grandson, and then things get a bit more intense when she lets herself driven more by her anger and jealousy later in the story.

Mostly sticking to its young heroine’s limited viewpoint, the movie closely and sensitively captures the emotional undercurrents swirling inside her innocent mind, and this is accentuated further by the broad but strikingly colorful animation interludes. Besides giving us some background information on Cléo’s relationship with Gloria, these animation interludes illuminate more of Cléo’s confused state of mind along the narrative, and everything in the story eventually culminates to a dramatic scene where Cléo comes to accept what will inevitably happen between her and Gloria in the end.

As the little but indelible emotional center of the film, young performer Louise Mauroy-Panzani is fabulous as effortlessly embodying her character’s small but dynamic emotional drama, and she is also supported well by the warm and understanding presence of Ilça Moreno Zego. Whenever they are together on the screen, we can sense the considerable affection and intimacy between their characters, and that is the main reason why the expected finale works with considerable emotional power. In case of several other main cast members in the movie, Fredy Gomes Tavares, Abnara Gomes Varela, and Arnaud Rebotini are also effective in their substantial supporting parts, and Tavares, who is a non-professional performer with no previous acting previous just like many of the main cast members of the film, is especially good as a boy who turns out to have his own emotional issues just like Cléo.

“Àma Gloria” is the second feature film of director/writer Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, who previously won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival for her first feature film “Party Girl” (2014). I have not watched “Party Girl” yet, but “Àma Gloria” shows that she is another talented filmmaker to watch, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from her after this solid coming-of-age drama movie. While its story and characters may feel quite familiar, they are presented with enough mood, detail, and personality to engage us, and you may come to hope that its little heroine will still remember her dear nanny even after growing up a lot during next several years.