Nanny trailer: First look at director Nikyatu Jusu’s debut film introduces the haunting story of a Senegalese mother desperate to reunite with her child.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Copyright: Property of Amazon Prime Video
Nanny brings to the big screen the real-life experiences of African domestic workers who have given up everything, often fleeing challenging circumstances, to try to seek opportunities in the west. Nikyatu Jusu’s award-winning debut feature film follows the story of a nanny, Aisha a Senegalese undocumented immigrant played by Anna Diop (US). Aisha works for an affluent family based in New York City. However, things begin to unravel when Aisha becomes haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind in Senegal. When plans to bring her son to the US to join her become imminent, volatile situations in her employer’s family life as well as “a violent presence invading both her dreams and her reality, threaten the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.”
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An authentic dimension to this story is the fact that Nikyatu Jusu’s mother sustained her household with this occupation, supporting her daughter’s upbringing as a nanny. Furthermore, Jusu decided to incorporate spiritual genre elements into Nanny that spoke to her Senegalese lineage.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Copyright: Property of Amazon Prime Video
With both writer and director credits for the film, Nikyatu Jusu has won prestigious accolades for her film already. Nanny is the first horror film to win the Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and it’s only the second time this honour has been bestowed upon a Black female director, after Ava Duvernay in 2012 for Middle Of Nowhere.
At its core, this is a genre-bending film that blends psychological horror with culturally relevant issues of social identity, including race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Copyright: Property of Amazon Prime Video
Along with Anna Diop, rounding out the cast are Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), Sinqua Walls (American Soul), Morgan Spector (The Gilded Age), Rose Decker (Mare of Easttown) and Leslie Uggams (Deadpool).
Watch the Nanny trailer below:
Nanny will be released in select theatres from 23 November 2022 and on Prime Video on 16 December 2022.
