Nanny is the haunting and award-winning debut feature from writer/director Nikyatu Jusu, starring Anna Diop (US), Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), Sinqua Walls (American Soul), Morgan Spector (The Gilded Age), Rose Decker (Mare of Easttown) and Leslie Uggams (Deadpool).
It’s the first horror film to win the Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and only the second time this honor has been bestowed upon a Black female director.
At its core, Nanny is a genre-bending film that blends psychological horror with culturally relevant issues of social identity, including race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Set in New York City, this fable of a Senegalese immigrant’s experience working for an affluent family is grounded in the real life experiences of domestic workers. The story is personal to Nikyatu Jusu’s upbringing, whose mother sustained her household with this occupation. Jusu incorporated spiritual genre elements that spoke to her lineage.
Written & Directed By Nikyatu Jusu Produced By Nikkia Moulterie and Daniela Taplin Lundberg Executive Produced By Maria Zuckerman, Ryan Heller, Michael Bloom, Jason Blum, Rebecca Cammarata, Bill Benenson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Laurie Benenson, Grace Lay, Sumalee Montano, Nikyatu Jusu, Chris
McCumber, Jeremy Gold
Starring Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector,
Rose Decker and Leslie Uggams
In this psychological horror fable of displacement, Aisha (Anna Diop), a woman who recently emigrated from Senegal, is hired to care for the daughter of an affluent couple (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) living in New York City. Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind, Aisha hopes her new job will afford her the chance to bring him to the U.S., but becomes increasingly unsettled by the family’s volatile home life.
As his arrival approaches, a violent presence begins to invade both her dreams and her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.