NZIFF Film Review: "The Nightingale" (2018).

"Her song will not be silenced." This is The Nightingale. This Australian period thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by Jennifer Kent. The film centres on Clare, a young Irish convict, who chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness and is bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence the man committed against her family. On the way, she enlists the services of Aboriginal tracker Billy, who is marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, "deluged" by the film scripts she was sent from Hollywood after the success of her debut film, The Babadook (2014), Kent decided to focus on writing and directing her own projects, this included The Nightingale. In late March 2017, IndieWire reported the principal photography on the film began on location in Tasmania, and wrapped in early June. In early September 2018, the film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. The film was met with controversy due to its extreme depictions of rape and murder. At its initial screenings at The Sydney Film Festival, approximately thirty audience members walked out of the theatre in disgust. Kent defended the decision to depict such violence, claiming that the film contains historically accurate depictions of the colonial violence and racism that took place against the Australian Indigenous people of that time. The film was produced in collaboration with Tasmanian Aboriginal elders who feel that this is an honest and necessary depiction of their history and a story that needs to be told. While Kent understands why some people reacted in a negative way, believing that they have every right to, she remains enormously proud of the film and stressed to audiences that this film is about a need for love, compassion and kindness in dark times. She said that her commitment to cinema is to make people feel something, even if that's anger at her or the situation.

The film stars Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman, Ewen Leslie, Michael Sheasby, and Baykali Ganambarr. So amazingly intense and unnerving the performances were that the film's villains and victims are still running amok in my brain. I think they might be there for some time.

The Nightingale is the best rape-revenge creation since Camille Keaton systematically hunted down the four men one by one to exact a terrible vengeance after she was brutally raped and left for dead in I Spit on Your Grave (1978). The film relies on real emotions rather than cheap exploitation—and boasts a heartfelt, genuinely moving story to boot. This is a film that mixes strong-minded storytelling with a clear dedication to craft. It is a non-stop ball of tension from beginning to end, the acting is freaking amazing, and the violence is ghastly. I can't even express how surprised I was by this movie. Almost everything about Kent's film is powerful: the haunting music, the sharp visual sensibility, the tightening tension as Clare's vengeance grows. It is mature and patient and it is, without a doubt, one of the best films this year.

Simon says The Nightingale receives:

Also, see my reviews for The Babadook and Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound.