Nanny (2022) Bold Debut Subverts Stereotypical Supernatural Expectations (Review)

In Nikatyu Jusu’s debut feature Nanny, motherhood, race, class and West African folklore are explored wrapped up in a fiercely smart and subtly supernatural package, that manages to subvert stereotypical expectations.

Anna Diop plays Aisha, a woman who has come to the United States from Senegal, in the hopes of working towards building a better life for herself and her son Lamine, who she has left behind in Senegal with her family until she can raise enough money for his plane ticket to join her. After taking on employment as a nanny to Rose, the daughter of aspiring wasp Amy (Michelle Monaghan) and her barely there husband Adam (Morgan Spector), Aisha begins to experience nightmarish visions in both her sleeping and waking hours that link her back to her Senagalese roots and the inherent maternal guilt she feels at having to leave her son behind.

Nanny is a dark drama about the often hellish experiences of immigrant workers who have had to make sacrifices to attempt to improve the future for not only themselves but their families back home. Aisha’s character is thrust into the world of a white middle-class family and the dichotomy that is portrayed between Aisha and the matriarch Amy is an interesting and uncomfortable lens. Michelle Monaghan plays the slightly unhinged Amy without falling into an overtly typical caricature of a “Karen” which would have been the obvious choice for the role. Amy and Aisha are struggling mothers, both suffering from the distance that has formed between themselves and their children, Amy with her emotional distance being a workaholic dealing with having to be the main breadwinner whilst her philandering husband seemingly fannies around, and Aisha experiencing the physical distance that has been placed between herself and her son, with no help from the man who fathered her child and took advantage of her as a young girl. Despite Amy’s slightly sympathetic point of view, viewers do not forget that Amy somewhat represents the white feminist movement of recent years that has forgone and exploited women of colour and those from marginalised communities. Aisha is constantly overworked and overburdened by her employers and has had to take over the maternal figure for Rose in place of the vacant Amy, as well as being the victim of microaggressions that come in the form of comments about her food and the colour of her skin.

Anna Diop provides a powerful performance as Aisha, playing her with a strong yet quiet force, so natural that at times it becomes very easy to forget that this is a film and not a day-in-the-life video diary of a woman’s experience being an immigrant in America. Even in her moments of shock and fear through her encounters with the supernatural, her reactions are not overacted and drawn out as can be typical in the horror subgenre of a woman’s guilt manifesting in terrifying and monstrous ways.

The supernatural elements of Nanny are deeply rooted in folk horror and West African origins with the figures of Anansi and Mami Water. Anansi is a trickster deity that appears in the form of a spider and Mami Water is a water goddess who is mermaid-like in appearance. The portrayal of both of these deities in Nanny offers potent symbolism attached to the character of Aisha. Anansi represents her strength and resilience to survive within her new and challenging environment, standing tall against those who would wish to oppress her. Mami Water is perhaps the most prominent entity in Aisha’s life, as she is frequently surrounded by water, whether physically or through other aspects of her life. Through the water and mirror motifs throughout the feature, audiences are introduced to the idea that we are witnessing Aisha move between the present and her future, whilst embodying the concept of Mami Water through her links to healing, fertility as well as her representation of male fidelity, which is a reoccurring, though subtle theme throughout the film.

Another successful element of Nanny is the incredible cinematography and detailed mise-en-scene that is created to reflect Aisha’s experiences both in the physical world and in her inner psyche. The lighting used throughout is of rich and bold colours especially blues and reds, adding depth and beauty to scenes which would otherwise come across as ephemeral. Particular attention has been paid to creating the environment within Amy and Adam’s city apartment. Whilst initially seeming quite standard and innocent, the location soon begins to feel unsettling and uncanny, with unusual lighting used from room to room as well as the positioning of Adam’s photography prints, depicting events that surround Black communities and the Black Lives Matter protests, further adding to the depiction of the white middle-class couple as performative and basically exploitative. The apartment and its occupants become constricting and a source of anxiety and turmoil within Aisha’s everyday life.

Nanny is a folk horror-speckled examination of the struggles of a migrant worker, whose own psyche is slowly disintegrating while dealing with the overwhelming guilt of parenthood and abandonment. The film is imbued with layers upon layers of conversation that surrounds motherhood and also involves commentary on race, class and culture. When the monstrosity of motherhood in horror is discussed, Nanny is an integral and important addition to the conversation among titles such as The Babadook (2014), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Hereditary (2018).

Nanny (2022)