The movie
is set in 1960, before slavery was abolished. Segregationist policies were in
place. ‘White’ people still treated ‘black’ people inhumanely. ‘White’ and
‘black’ were primary modes of treating people. Rampant discrimination.
The movie
focuses on the struggles of black nannies working in rich white households. It
shows how the children that these black nannies raise with so much love and
kindness, raise as their own, grow up and turn out exactly like their cruel
white parents. These parents openly demean the black community via racist
slurs, rude orders, labelling, abuse, etc. Slavery was prominent even in “forward”
households. The nannies’ meagre source of livelihood was dependant on the flip
of a switch of their ‘masters’ moods. The movie portrays how these women live
in constant fear for their and their family’s lives.
A young
white woman named Skipper had always empathised with, been kind and respectful
to her nanny as well as other nannies. Such was the impact of the nanny she had
when she was a child. She was a writer, did not conform to the “beauty
standard” of the time, never put her head down in front of a man, and always
spoke her mind- making her an iconic and lovable odd-ball. She decided to write
a book written from a never-heard-before perspective. The book was essentially
a memoir of all the struggles and cruel incidences that the nannies and their
families had to face. It took a while before she mobilised enough support and
received cooperation from them since they were scared of being hunted and have
their freedom curbed if the authorities found out that they contributed to the
book. While Skipper was in the process of writing the book, we see a number of
hilarious encounters as well as heart wrenching stories play out.
After
Skipper’s book got published, we see that literally everyone was reading it.
And overnight, most of the harsh masters realise their sins and treat those
around them with a little more respect and compassion. The book is supposed to
have been one of the first few steps taken to abolish slavery. Quite unrealistic,
but one can hope! One of the reasons I found the movie uplifting was because she
aspired to write something she was passionate about, even at the cost of being
ostracised. All she needed was her muse. The nannies got to release all their pent-up
emotions; in a way it acted like therapy.
I was so enraptured
by the movie that I immediately went ahead and ordered the book.