Nanny, review of the movie Prime Video with Anna Diop

We have seen Nannythe debut film by Nikyatu Jusu starring Anna Diopavailable at Prime Videos. This is the review.

World premiere at Sundance Film Festival last year, winning among other things the Grand Jury Prizethe horror of Jusu was achieved through the interesting initiatives IFP Project Forum and Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs. In the cast, with Anna Diop (Titans), also counts the presence of Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector.

At the center of the plot is an undocumented immigrant (Anna Diop) who tries to rebuild her life in the USA by accepting the job of nanny for a wealthy family. Aisha’s sacrifices, this is her name, are used to put aside enough money to be reunited with her little son who in the meantime remained in Senegal with his cousin. What complicates Aisha’s plans is the appearance of a dark force that undermines her daily life.

THE COMMENT

Mark a product like as a horror film Nanny it may represent a mere exaggeration for many genre lovers, but as often happens on these occasions, the terror developed by a cinematic story is not what is explicitly shown. In the Nikyatu Jusu’s debut film the terror is in fact more metaphysical, mostly represented by supernatural factors most of the time inserted contextually to the daily life lived by the protagonist.

There Jusu with his film he exploits various characteristics of the horror genre without, however, ever accentuating their presence within the story. His goal, successful or not, is to transcend reality, made up of real problems such as social inequality, labor exploitation and family detachment, to focus the viewer’s attention towards more spiritual aspects, or if we want to limit the paranormal. The thin line that the director draws to divide reality from fiction is therefore the driving force of a debut film that hits the target, frightening the viewer with everything that is not actually shown.

But if the basic idea is absolutely clever, what makes a debut triumph for the Jusu only in a good beginning is the way in which the director decides to build her film from a script point of view. Nannyin fact, suffers from an extremely staid rhythm, staging sequences in some cases poor in content, where the only thing to keep the quality high is the skill of its protagonist, good at hiding moments of pure stagnation with her stage presence narrative.

CAST AND TECHNICAL ASPECT

Known for the role of Starfire in the DC Titans seriesthe actress Anna Diop with Nanny gives the audience a glimpse of his enormous talent. His performance can be considered a triumph in every respect. From facial expressions, to stage presence, obviously passing through the way in which he keeps alive sequences of tired narrative, the Diop shows himself to the general public as one of the promises of the new Hollywood, it will clearly be up to his talent to continue making headlines.

The music is absolutely an integral part of the Jusu movie: many of the key sequences of Nanny, some of which are constructed as almost dreamlike events, are accompanied by a musicality capable of unleashing conflicting emotions, thus leading the viewer to empathize in an almost symbiotic way with the mood of the protagonist. The aesthetics in a low-budget horror film have often been a sore point, but in this case it’s clear as day that the work done on production design, editing and visual effects is of absolute value.

IN CONCLUSION

Nanny it is a film capable of offering a wide range of emotions by drawing a fine line between fiction and reality. The terror is palpable, but almost never the center of attention, and this is perhaps – like the extraordinary work of Anna Diop – the flagship for a directorial debut, that of Nikyatu Jusuof perspective. In our opinion, this is a must see film.

Nanny is currently available on Prime Videos catalogue.