Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese nanny in New York City. She is saving to bring her son over from Senegal.
She begins working for a couple (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) and child Rose (Rose Decker).
While she forms an instant bond with the child, she finds the parents harder to contend with - they fail to pay her, the husband sexually harrasses her, and she is often forced to act as a foster parent to their child.
Her life is further complicated by visions - of water, and something in the water. Something that is watching her…
Written and directed by Nikyatu Jusu in her feature debut, Nanny is one of the most fascinating movies I have seen this year.
Technically, it is one of the most engrossing films I have seen this year. I found it a little confusing narrative-wise, but at a certain point they did not matter - the film’s mood, themes and aesthetics are the reason for this movie’s existence.
Cinematographer Rina Yang is a key part of this - the film is filled with rich colours, deep greens and blues. In the apartment, Aisha framed in wide shots or through window frames - she is a small powerless figure in this sterile space. As Aisha's world begins to fall in, the film is filled with varying shades of blue - the world around her is literally drowning.
I also loved the score by singer Tanerélle and Bartek Gliniak - largely atmospheric use of percussion with Tanerélle’s sighs and haunting, wordless melodies, it builds to a fever pitch, detaching the character from the real world and deeper under the spell of the entity following her.
What makes it stand out is that the film features an antagonist who I am not familiar with, and who does not fit the simple good-evil binary.
Mamie Wata is a water spirit which originated in Western and Central Africa and was carried throughout the diaspora.
As contextualised in the film, they are an agent of chaos bound by neither the rules of humans or gods. They are not evil, though their actions - as depicted here - can cause great pain.
They can also be catalysts for change - in this case, destroying Aisha’s world so that she can be reborn.
That lack of easy morality makes the film far more unpredictable, and also means the film is less concerned with some kind of conflict between the protagonist and some supernatural foe.
The horror comes from a loss of control, and an inability to grasp what is happening.
When her dreams start to take over during the daytime, everything starts to come into question - I was starting to get suspicious that her son had died and she was imagining their reunion.
The cast are all solid but Anna Diop as Aisha holds the whole piece together. So much of the movie’s effect is based on Diop’s crumbling exterior, as she battles to hold her life together from both without and within.
The film is more of a slow burn, more interested in mood than traditional scares, and it never needs them. There is an eerie sequence where AIsha is face-to-face with Mamie Wata, but otherwise the film’s terrors are offscreen.
The ending struck me as slightly off - I want to re-watch the film to get a better grasp of it. It illustrates the film’s theme, but there is an emotional development which felt slightly rushed.
Unlike a lot movies I watched this year, Nanny is a movie that I am excited to revisit.
Nikyatu Jusu is one to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment