The horror of the immigrant experience is often portrayed quite literally in American cinema: realistic, shaky camera movements; raw and muted colors; sad, tired people with wide eyes, speaking sparingly while enduring all the abuse capitalism has to offer. The directors who traffic in these stories often do so from a place of detachment, able to record the suffering of their subjects while ignoring the many layers of their humanity.
And then, from time to time, audiences get something that not only represents the immigrant experience, but also gives us a lens to understand (at least partially) the emotional nuances of physically living in a place while one's heart resides in another. Leaving your homeland is a series of small deaths, adding to an overall sense of mourning for the life you might have had had you stayed. Nikyatu Jusu's first feature film, Nanny, is about coping with grief in the hope that a new life will lead to healing.
Director: Nikyatu Jusu
Writer: Nikyatu Jusu
Stars: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls
The film tells the story of Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese nanny for Rose (Rose Decker), the daughter of a wealthy white New York couple with a strained marriage. Amy (Michelle Monaghan) is the quintessential upper-class working mom whose control issues and general anxiety make it difficult for Aisha to do her job. When Rose refuses to eat the hermetically sealed healthy food that her mother leaves her, Aisha begins feeding her jollof rice on the sly, knowing that Amy would never allow it. Although her husband Adam is close to her, it is Amy who calls the shots, demanding every moment of Aisha's time as well as emotional support. Adam lives up to his disdain, frequently disappearing, only showing interest in Rose when she gets the chance to flirt with Aisha. Exhausted from her work and fed up with Adam, it seems Amy can't even pay Aisha on time.
There are moments early in the film where it seems the focus will be Aisha's relationship with the white couple, but Jusu frames them as intruders into Aisha's life, distracting her from her own needs and desires. Aisha needs to be paid on time, not only her rent, but mainly to save money before her little son Lamine's arrival in the country. Meanwhile, he stays with his family, with only phone calls and video chats connecting them between continents. She is a mother on a mission and her job as a nanny is just a means to an end.
It's refreshing to see Aisha repeatedly draw boundaries between herself and the troubled couple, refusing to fall prey to the contrived trappings of her lifestyle. She can see her misery and the emptiness of her marriage very clearly, even in the midst of her own emotional turmoil. She longs only for what is hers: her child, whom she refers to as her "greatest work."
Dripping in aquatic images, Nanny is a film that moves freely through life and dream space, favoring the deep blue-tinged darkness. It is the type of film in which the viewer loses all sense of time, mesmerized by the beauty and melancholy of each shot. Jusu first honed this style in her debut short film, Suicide By Sunlight, a subtly beautiful story of a black mother fighting to regain custody of her children while she hides a violent secret. Nanny draws on the themes of motherhood, focusing on the pain of being separated from her child and having to care for another. As Aisha spends more time with her white employers and her daughter, her identity as her mother and her connection to her son begin to fade.
With the company of other West African immigrants and a new love, Malik, Aisha tries to stay rooted in her culture and take steps toward the life she wants. Like Malik, Walls is charming and calm; we see Aisha beginning to relax and enjoy her time in the city. Diop and Walls have lovely chemistry, but the film's most impactful connection is between her and veteran actress Leslie Uggams, who plays Malik's grandmother Kathleen. As Aisha begins to have visions, interrupting both her sleep and waking hours, Kathleen uses her spiritual intuition to help the protagonist understand what they mean. Two figures from West African folklore, the trickster Anansi and the water spirit Mami Wata, take over her mind, slowly eroding her sanity. Aisha begins to see spiders, Anansi's most popular form, often accompanied by her mind playing tricks on her, distorting moments of her reality.
Watch Nanny 2022 Movie Trailer
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