A "love letter to mothers on the margins of society, to migrant mothers, to those who came to Ameirca and left their children in their country of origin to create a better future for them".
This is how Atlanta-born director Nikyatu Jusu describes her debut feature, Nanny, a supernatural family drama / thriller with horror hints starring Anna Diop and Michele Monaghan, who won the main prize, and the US Grand Jury. Prize for the Dramatic section at the Sundance Film Festival.
The protagonist of the story is the 26-year-old Senegalese Aisha (Diop) who emigrated to New York, where she works without a Green card as a nanny, taking care of little Rose (Rose Decker), daughter of a liberal bourgeois couple in crisis, composed of Amy (Monaghan), manager of
a company that tries to keep everything under control but starts to fall apart and Adam (Morgan Spector), photoreporter and serial seducer.
Aisha, affectionate and attentive in her work, has as main goal to save money to bring her son, Lamine, whom she increasingly misses her, to live with her in the United States.
However, the growing tensions with employers (Amy does not pay her what she should, Adam tries to make it one of his conquests) and a series of disturbing visions, with suggestions that come from powerful and dangerous figures of African mythology, such as Anansi, god half man half spider, and the siren goddess Mami Wata, make the boundary between reality, delirium and nightmare increasingly blurred for her.
A journey that leads her to deal with mourning and rebirth.
The two mythological figures "
Her employers said they considered her part of the family.
One thing I've always found curious because they weren't really interested in knowing her as a person. "