Aisha, played by Anna Diop (Titans, Us) takes a job as a nanny in the hopes of earning enough money to bring her son from Senegal to America. But just when it seems that she’s close to reuniting with him, unexplained incidents make her question her surroundings.
Nanny
Nikyatu Jusu (director and writer), Rina Yang (cinematography), Robert Mead (editor)
Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, and Sinqua Walls (cast)
September 8, 2022 (TIFF)
My first film at TIFF 2022 was a doozy. Part horror, part social commentary, part magic realism, Nanny does a lot in a short amount of time. Not all of it works well, but it does the job.
There’s been much discussion about nannies and caregivers over the pandemic and some excellent comedic TV shows featuring nannies as protagonists. But what’s the reality of immigrants having to work as nannies?
That’s really at the crux of Nanny. Aisha doesn’t take the job because of any great love for it. This is literally all she can get and she’s bound to the job, and her employers, because of her lack of options. To me, that is the real horror of the story.
That’s probably why the actual horror in Nanny failed to pique my interest. The horror elements, including one visual trope that I absolutely adore, didn’t add as much to the film as I would have liked. Were they eerie? Did they have me scooching to the edge of my seat? Sure. While the horror scenes do give us some insight into Aisha’s inner world, they muddied the story that could instead have focused more on the difficult world that Aisha has to navigate. The social commentary in the primary narrative held strong on its own. The horror added little to it.
I found myself really involved in the more realistic elements of the narrative. Aisha is a woman and a mother so terribly far away from her home, and more importantly, her son. Her story is relatable, especially as we enter a third year of this pandemic. When Ayesha gets teary-eyed telling her employer she hasn’t seen her son in over a year, I instantly knew why she couldn’t control her emotions.
Add to that, Aisha’s employers aren’t the best when it comes to doing the important stuff. You know, like ensuring there’s fresh food for their child. Or coming home on time so Aisha can leave. Or even paying her for all the overtime she has to do! These are the more obvious ways that the couple exploits Aisha, and she’s almost entirely powerless to do anything about it. As Aisha tells her friend, “they own me.” Her words will ring painfully true for many nannies in North America and beyond. I remember hearing very similar stories when I was living in Dubai.
Nanny is strongest when it dives into the social inequities between an immigrant single mom and her wealthy white employers. While the film portrays them as flawed and dealing with their own problems—a loveless marriage and sexism at work—those are hardly excuses for not being a decent human beings. We get a rounded view of the employers, but it’s clear why Aisha has a right to feel aggrieved.
This is also why I don’t think Nanny quite sticks the landing, at least not for me. I felt that the ending stripped Aisha of her agency. To say more would be to give it away, but just when it seems that Aisha is finally getting to manage the circumstances around her, a series of events occur that are beyond her control. Does this mean she’s back at square one? Or that despite similar incidents happening, she is a different person and can handle them as she is now? It’s a quandary and I feel that the ending will be a talking point because it can be read in several different ways depending on your own life experiences.
Playing the protagonist, Anna Diop carries this film and puts in a powerfully relatable performance. She expertly embodies a woman who is trapped by circumstance but always hopeful for better things. As a viewer, you can’t help but feel your heart soar when Aisha finds small moments of happiness, or feel annoyed on her behalf when her employer is late, again. We want the best for her because Diop gives us a real person to root for. If the film had focused just on Aisha and not introduced the horror, it would have been stronger for it.
Despite my apathy to the horror elements, I’d recommend Nanny to anyone interested in genre films and in social commentaries. The film executes the latter better than the former but those elements are so successful that it overshadows the less accomplished parts. With a stunning lead performance and a twist-filled ending, Nanny was a great start to my TIFF 2022.
