by Daniel O'Connell Australian auteur Jennifer Kent has made a name for herself in recent years. She rose to prominence with her 2014 directorial debut The Babadook. The film was about a single mother who must protect her son from a supernatural threat that escaped a children’s book and now lurks within their home. It was fantastic in how it created horror through its atmosphere, as well as making the audience feel unsettled and frightened. The Babadook received critical acclaim, including praise from The Exorcist director William Friedkin. Now, Kent brings her first feature film in five years with the excellent period thriller, The Nightingale. The film is set in 1825 Tasmania, then known as the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land. It follows Clare (Aisling Franciosi), an Irish convict who lives with her husband, Aidan (Michael Sheasby), and their infant daughter. The husband and wife work at a military outpost and yearn to one day earn freedom. Clare’s world is destroyed when a British officer named Hawkins (Sam Claflin) and his men rape her and kill her family. Unable to get justice from the British authorities, she decides to track down Hawkins, who has left to take a captain position up north. To this end, she hires Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), an aboriginal tracker to help find them. With both of them having with pasts full of violence, the two set out for revenge against the backdrop of Tasmania’s Black War.
Brilliant, award-worthy acting
A beautifully bleak presentation
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