The mother of the NYC Democratic candidate is an award-winning (and very progressive) Indian filmmaker.

It's a Woody Allen movie dream: the mother of the candidate who just won the Democratic Party primaries for mayor of New York , Zohran Mandani , is Mira Nair , a prestigious Indian filmmaker who even won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2001 for Monsoon Wedding (available to watch on Filmin). We mustn't forget the politician's father, Mahmood Mamdani , a professor of Anthropology, Political Science and African Studies at Columbia University who, although born in India, also holds Ugandan nationality. He has all the family concoction (so often featured in the New Yorker's films): a diversity of nationalities, cinema, a wealth of culture and intellectuality, a progressive ideological stance , and an economic class that can afford to live in Manhattan. The nightmare of Trumpism. And the New York Democrats, obviously, have fallen in love with this story.

The American media have highlighted Mandani's origins, which here would quickly lead to the pejorative label of "caviar leftist." However, the truth is that beyond this broad outline—which would be used by her political opponents—Nair is a filmmaker who has carved out her place in American cinema since the late 1970s with her debut film and has won several awards throughout her career. Her films and political statements in interviews also help explain the political position of her son , the breakout star and hope of the Democrats since last week (although under the current Constitution he would not be able to run for president because he was not born in the US ).

Nair was born in India in 1957 and by the age of 19 was already studying Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard on a scholarship (she came from a middle-class background: the daughter of a civil servant and a social worker). She soon began filming documentaries that addressed her country's society without fear of explicit themes and with a fairly liberal perspective. In her first, Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979), she portrayed a traditional Muslim community in India. In India Cabaret (1985), she portrayed the strippers at a nightclub in India. And in Children of Desired Sex (1987), she discussed how Indian families preferred (and prayed for) having a boy rather than a girl, who was considered a burden.

In 1988, her breakthrough came with her first fiction film, Salaam Bombay , which also portrayed real-life issues such as the plight of poor children on the streets of Bombay. The film was a huge success in her home country (it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) and at Cannes, where it won the Camera d'Or Award —awarded to the best first film. It brought her to the forefront, but also unleashed her more committed side with the creation of the Salaam Baalak Trust to care for street children.

He immediately began filming documentaries that addressed his country's society without fear of explicit topics and with a liberal perspective.

Then came the siren call of Hollywood, and she shot Mississippi Massala with Denzel Washington (1991). It was the film that brought her to know her husband and father of her child, the Ugandan Mahmood Mamdani, and the script, although a romantic drama, focuses in part on the dictatorship of Idi Amin . She decided not to lend herself to the US industry and soon after shot a film that caused her considerable trouble in her country: Kamasutra, a love story . Despite the fact that it was more sensational than explicit, she had to appear before Indian courts on several occasions after complaints that it was considered inappropriate.

In 2001, her breakthrough came with Monsoon Wedding (2001), which won her the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (and is her best-known film in Spain). The director, although already living in New York, continued filming stories that transcended borders, such as this one, which depicts the hopes, fears, and deepest secrets of a family at a wedding attended by friends from around the world. As was later the case with The Namesake (2006), based on a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, these films question the politics of identity, gender, and migration.

Anti-nationalist and anti-fundamentalist

Despite her strong interest in her home country, Mira Nair has had numerous problems with India in recent years, particularly for her fierce criticism of President Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist policies. For this reason, and for her denunciation of Islamophobia in the US, particularly after 9/11, she has been considered an Islamic fundamentalist, although she has also always denounced religious fundamentalism.

For her denunciation of Islamophobia in the United States, she has been considered an Islamic fundamentalist.

In 2012, at the Venice Film Festival, he presented The Reluctant Fundamentalist , a thriller in which he denounced attacks on Muslims in the US and fundamentalism in Pakistan. He made controversial statements in which he criticized George Bush's policies: "Contrary to what George Bush preached, there is a wide range between being 'with them' or 'against them.'" He then added: "The economic fundamentalism of Wall Street and the religious fundamentalism in Pakistan have many similarities."

Just three years ago, his latest project, A Good Game , premiered in the US. It addressed the early years of post-colonial India , when relations between Hindus and Muslims in India were already conflicting, causing another clash with Modi's supporters.

"I will go to Israel when the state no longer privileges one religion. I will go to Israel when apartheid ends."

He also ran afoul of Israel after refusing to participate in the Haifa Film Festival in 2013 in protest of its 46-year occupation of the West Bank , East Jerusalem, and Gaza. At the time, he said: "I will not go to Israel right now… I will go to Israel when the occupation ends. I will go to Israel when the state no longer privileges one religion over another. I will go to Israel when apartheid ends." Evidently, he has not returned.