Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Nanny.

The greatest horror in the stunning feature debut that is Nanny comes in its final minutes, but it all also depends on how everything before it builds to these moments just as much. A feature debut from writer-director Nikyatu Jusu, it tells the story of a woman named Aisha (Anna Diop) who has emigrated from Senegal to America and discovers that the chance at a better life she is working hard for may forever be out of reach to those like her who weren’t already born with their hand on the top rung. It is a work that is understated in its construction, relying on limited locations and settings, that expands outward into a conclusion that hits like a train. Upon first seeing it when it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it immediately stuck out in my memory for how utterly devastating it all was. While unexpected, a second watch reveals there is no other way it could have gone and ensures the whole film is emotionally shattering as it carries out a grimly inevitable march to tragedy.

Myths at the Core of Nanny

The film would go on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the festival, a well-deserved recognition for all it managed to achieve in blending genre and tone to expose the exploitation inherent to our world. It would subsequently get picked up by Blumhouse for a theatrical release starting this week before its streaming release on Amazon Prime in December. While many exciting releases come out of festivals, this one in particular is noteworthy as it is one of those films that sneaks up on you the more you think about it. It is elusive and eerie without overplaying its hand, drawing you deeper into its depths. At its core, it's a story about myths. In this case, myths refer to both those we tell ourselves about the way the world is supposed to work and those that go deeper into foretelling how unimaginable tragedy can take hold of our lives when we least expect it too. This is crystallized in an ending that, for all the striking imagery that was seen throughout the film, leaves the most lasting mark in its final moments.

nanny anna diop blumhouse
Image via Blumhouse

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After spending nearly all the film attempting to make enough money to bring her son Lamine (Jahleel Kamara) to America to stay with her, Aisha is right on the cusp of finally doing it. The story was centered around how she had to deal with the casual cruelty of Amy (Michelle Monaghan) and Adam (Morgan Spector) who frequently wouldn’t pay her what she was owed. This would prolong how long she had to work for them and delay when it was possible for her to get Lamine the plane tickets. However, after they finally came through on what they had failed to pay her for an egregious amount of time, she had managed to make enough to get the child she hadn’t seen for quite a while yet was doing everything for a ticket to fly there. The triumph of this moment was tempered with a growing sense of dread that something was wrong. When Aisha called to confirm the tickets were bought and everything was good to go, her cousin Mariatou (Olamide Candide-Johnson) who had been looking after Lamine while she was away seemed to be just about to tell her something before saying it was nothing. As it turns out, something was more wrong than we could have ever imagined.

When Aisha arrives at the airport, she eagerly awaits their arrival with her caring boyfriend Malik (Sinqua Walls) by her side though both can’t see Lamine or Mariatou. She goes to the front desk to ask for information though they are unable to provide her any. Aisha then steps outside to call Mariatou and hears the echo of her phone ringing nearby. She turns, already looking concerned, and begins to walk toward the sound. She sees her cousin there alone and desperately asks her where Lamine is. Through tears, Mariatou tells her that he drowned at the beach and that she came here alone. We get a painfully fleeing glimpse of Aisha bathing Lamine when he was a baby before she collapses in grief. After spending all this time raising the child of callous people who couldn’t care any less about her, her own son had died while she was waiting for them to finally pay her what she had owed. All the moments where she was being haunted by an otherworldly mermaid-like being, known as the Mami Watu, then begin to make sense. The being’s arrival, while occasionally menacing in how it was portrayed, actually served as a warning of doom and less its bringer as we then see it bring Aisha back up to the surface in one of the final sequences when she was about to drown herself.

Anna Diop and Sinqua Walls in NannyThe Horrors of Seeking the American Dream in Nanny

All the times that she heard screams, she was hearing Lamine in trouble. However, she was a world away and she was unable to do anything about it even as the Mami Watu was trying to bring them together across time and space. The ending is an unflinchingly bleak one as it sees how domestic workers like Aisha are made to give so much of themselves to care for others at their own labor and expense. She, like far too many, was prevented by circumstance from being with her own child yet was expected to work tirelessly in looking after another. It was not her fault by any means as the conditions of the world that she was forced to navigate ensured that she was prevented from being elsewhere. The myth that you can come to America and thrive is torn to pieces as we see how those like Aisha have the deck stacked against them at every turn. She will have a chance to rebuild a life, but it will always be in the shadow of her lost son that was taken from her by the dark forces of our own world more than any other. For all the brief glimpses we get of joy in her future, there is no escaping this truth.