Nanny

Winner! Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival

Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese immigrant, lands a job as a nanny for a wealthy Manhattan couple. While she easily wins the affection of their young daughter, Rose, she becomes a pawn in the couple’s façade of a marriage. The mother is as controlling as the dad is disillusioned and woke. Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind in Senegal, Aisha hopes her new job will afford her the chance to bring him to the U.S. and share in the life she’s piecing together. But as his arrival approaches, a supernatural presence begins to invade both her dreams and her reality. Writer/director Nikyatu Jusu elegantly weaves together a fascinating character study with supernatural entities derived from West African folklore, spinning Nanny into a singular genre all its own, with horrors specifically drawn from Aisha’s life and legacy. (Dir. by Nikyatu Jusu, 2022, USA, 97 mins., Not Rated)

Other festivals: Sundance, Toronto