Malia, the young filmmaker, does not want to be Obama. Surnames make a difference, and even more so if your father was the first black president of the United States, with what it means of love and hate.
The first-born daughter of Barack and Michelle debuted her film at the last edition of the Sundance festival. Her work is an 18-minute short: The heart. According to the official description, it is a fable that “tells the story of a lonely man who mourns the death of his mother after an argument over buying groceries and a strange request in his will.”
She is the writer and director, but she conspicuously avoids her last name and signs as Malia Ann, her middle name.
Among film criticism there is everything, light and dark. “There is a lot of potential in this story about pain and the sense of guilt,” said one of those present in the room at that premiere. “There are wonderful layers of absurdity and genuine pathos,” added another.
“This short represents a lot of wasted money,” replied one of the detractors. “Can you be a true indie director if your father has been president?” they asked.
This is the gist: why not? Everything indicates that his desire to carve his own path led him to modify his identity. Numerous critics are influenced or influence what many consider an act of hypocrisy by avoiding the use of their birth surname.
This attitude, so common in movie stars without it being relevant, has only accentuated the accusations of nepo baby, another of those newfound expressions that are already global thanks to social networks. So it plays against Malia, 25, that attempt to ward off the stigma of being a daughter of nepotism.
Everything indicates that he wanted to avoid the accusation of taking advantage of the glory of his famous father’s surname and has had a boomerang effect due to the accusation of trying to hide and deceive about who he really is.
“He is trying to mock the nepo baby speech by not using his last name. Dude, you’re Obama’s daughter! ”She spread in messages from X (formerly Twitter).
Malia was a White House kid who came of age at the center of world power. She arrived from her native Chicago at the age of ten to the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and moved out of obligation at 18.
She and her sister, Sasha (she was seven years old), spent their childhood and much of their adolescence as daughters of the president of the United States.
They are not the first, nor those who have had a more traumatic experience. Caroline was not yet seven when her father, President Kennedy, was assassinated. And teenager Chelsea found herself immersed in the marital crisis of her father, President Bill Clinton, and first lady Hillary, due to her sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky.
But it wasn’t easy for the Obamas either. They suffered relentless attacks from the extreme right and white nationalists, led by Donald Trump as the main spokesperson that Obama was an illegitimate president, relying on the more than recognized lie that he was born in Africa.
Since the ultra media found nothing to attack Obama’s moral integrity, they concentrated on harassing Michelle and her daughters with racist comments and insults. This is another factor that perhaps led Malia to chart her own path.
However, his birthplace has been relevant in his career. She had no problems accessing the prestigious Harvard University – “Wasn’t she a good student?” her defenders ask – or starting her film career with important connections. She played an intern in the progressive HBO series Girls, collaborated in the production company of Harvey Weinstein, then an important Democratic donor and now disgraced, in prison for rapist, and she was linked to Donald Glover as a writer of the series Swarm.
Malia pretends to be someone else, but a shadow follows her.
