Nana (FILM REVIEW & ANALYSIS)

Nana Analysis 

At the sundance festival of 2015 a visually striking film about struggling nannies in Mexico. Written and directed by Diego Luna, this heartfelt story follows the struggles of a nana trying to make her way to work at a rich family’s home after spending the night and early morning with her own family in their apartment. This bittersweet film explores the themes of hardworking yet unappreciated people who would go to great lengths for their job. Diego Luna created a simple yet powerful acknowledgement to the women who helped raise him and the impoverished state of Mexico where these women had to struggle to get to work and are treated dismissively by their upper class employers. (AJ+, 2015) In just 6 minutes themes of class struggle, maternal figures, ignorance, and perseverance are displayed through soothing instrumental music and pieces of Nana's journey to her job while the economy continues to oppress her.

The film is shot as a mockumentary with an interview both at the beginning and at the end in black and white. With a cut to a clapboard being closed and the world coming into full color before our eyes. This shows us we are moving from the glamorized idea of being a nanny which she describes at the beginning to the real exhausting but still rewarding truth of her situation. In the documentary section she speaks about her job very highly, as if nothing is ever a problem for her. She is dressed nicely, her hair is neat, and she seems like a fully capable and happy woman. The black and white to me seems to show we aren’t getting the full picture here, there's only a small scale of what happens and when the coloured section begins we see how hard her job really is but she still loves it all the same- it's just not the glamorized version she spoke of before. When the color takes over the screen Nana is also dressed far less fashionably in a simple sweater and her hair is very unkempt compared to the black-and-white section of the film.

The camera for the middle portion of the film is often hand-held and looks like the cinematographer is walking alongside nana through her day to day life. One of the first shots we see after the clapboard at the beginning of the scene- which tells us we are now entering the narrative section but it is still set in realism-  is the camera following her shows her through a dusty window of a small apartment where she and her family live. She’s about to leave but she takes a minute to hug and talk to her daughter before leaving the house for the day. This shot follows her into the street which then transitions to a close-up shot of her shoes as she walks away from the home and begins her journey. We are both literally and metaphorically introduced to an average day in her life, walking in her shoes alongside her. She walks into the night after what seems to be a long day of familial work for her before she leaves to meet her client, leaving her child with their auntie. The color is very desaturated from this point on, with a very blue overtone which conveys the emotional state that Nana is in as she makes her exhausting trip. 

The colors, visuals of Nana and those around her, and acting in the journey section of the film displays the genuinely overwhelming emotions and tiredness Nana- and the many other hardworking impoverished people-is feeling as she hails down a truck and climbs into the back to make her way to the house more quickly. There are multiple melancholy shots of her resting in the back of the truck trying to rest before reaching her workplace. The exhaustion and the enclosed space of the trunk makes this section of the film feel very oppressive, as if Nana feels a little trapped to her job, even if she loves it. It looks as though she reflects on this as she stares out at the streets behind her and the run-down houses and cars that she passes. This continues as Nana goes to board the bus but we can only see her through the view of the window, it makes the film look encaged. Along with the visual of all the other impoverished citizens standing next to the side of the road we begin to understand that poverty is difficult to escape, it is a prison to many people especially in Mexico. In 2021 it was reported that the poverty rate in Mexico is 44% of the population, meaning nearly half of the people living in Mexico live in poverty (Diego Ore, 2021). 

When Nana arrives in the rich section of town the saturation comes back to the screen and Nana walks to the home of her client, passing a gardener who we briefly follow for a moment as he looks over at her. By doing this we recognize and acknowledge that he too is facing similar struggles to our main character, he works very hard but still lives with next to nothing. It's a brief yet tender moment of understanding between the two characters which is contrasted by the harsh and demanding employer who scolds Nana for being late. His scoldings show us that he is a man of privilege, not aware of the way people like Nana have to journey so far to work a job that pays a very small amount. She seems to pay no mind to his demeaning and focuses on her job and the child that she cares for, who seems to bring her joy in the same way she brings him joy. He rushes to her and hugs her showing that he has a strong bond with Nana who feels her maternal duty is to protect and care for him despite what the aggressive father figure is scolding her about.

 This entire scene is filled with contrasts to the opening coloured section of the film where Nana was saying goodbye to her child before leaving. The room is bright and beautiful here- where Nana’s was dark and untidy, the walkway towards the home is clear and filled with beautiful brush unlike the dark alley she walked away from at the beginning. The journey section of the film ends with Nana at the beautiful open window, smiling and looking out with peaceful acceptance of her situation and allowing her to simply let go of the fear of her poverty and enjoy the beautiful scenery around her- shutting the window and forgetting the journey she took to get here, contrasting the opening where she stared out the closed window of her tiny apartment feeling trapped, isolated, and concerned for the wellbeing of her daughter. 

In conclusion Nana shows us that those in poverty feel trapped in poverty no matter how hard they work to get away from it, there is a looming inescapable force of today's current economy that is constantly pushing them back. The cinematography is purposefully oppressive with often very close shots of Nana making you feel entangled in her financial insecurity as she struggles to get to work. Similar to Parasite (2019)-film also showing the lengths someone will go to to survive in a broken economy- Nana burns with powerful imagery and reflection on the state of the world’s economy and the dismissiveness of the wealthy who simply tell the poor to work harder or find a better job when the poor are often already working far more physically and mentally difficult jobs than the wealthy individual. I compare it to Bong Joon-Ho's film Parasite because of the striking visuals and colors which display the difference between the rich and the poor in a very subtle yet drastically important way. Both centre around impoverished families struggling to make ends meet who push themselves beyond what's normally expected to be done for a low-paying job. Nana ends with a continuation of the interview showing she continues to glamorize the lifestyle to both herself and the public but also giving herself a reminder of why she works so hard.

Person. “Ranks of Mexican Poor Swell to Reach Nearly Half the Population.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 5 Aug. 2021, www.reuters.com/world/americas/ranks-mexican-poor-swell-reach-nearly-half-population-2021-08-05/. 

“Diego Luna Talks ‘Nana.’” Paula Neudorf, www.paulaneudorf.com/diego-luna-talks-nana. 

“Parasite.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 8 Nov. 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/.