The Nightingale

What you've read about The Nightingale is true. It's a horrifying watch. It's opening 20 minutes will beat you round the head and leave you traumatised and hyperventilating. If you're watching it at home on google movies you have the option of pausing it to gather yourself up. If you have the misfortune of seeing it in the cinema you're going to want to run screaming from the screening room. It's as harsh an opening to a film as I've seen in a long time and it doesn't get easier as it moves along. Some will hate it but there's no denying that's it's a superbly made movie.

Clare Carroll (Aisling Franciosi), a young Irish woman and convict is in Van Dieman's Land living out her punishment. It's a hellish place, dangerous for the British soldiers, a death sentence for Aboriginal Australians in the Black War of the 1820's and truly terrifying for women of either ethnicity as they eke out an existence while trying and failing to avoid sexual violence at the hands of men who see them as little more than a collection of orifices. Clare falls victim to the truly hateful Captain Hawkins (Sam Claflin) and suffers a tragedy that would leave most others catatonic. But she wants justice and to help her get it she hires an Aboriginal tracker called Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) to lead her across the harsh Tasmanian terrain to her revenge.

It's hard to recommend this film to anyone. Over it's 136 minute running time it's a litany of atrocity, each one chipping away at the souls of our heroes and the resolve of us, the audience. It's the kind of film that will renew your hatred for the Brits and haunt your dreams. Many will find it triggering and plenty won't make it past the 1/4 way point but if you do you'll bear witness to a remarkable film that plunges us into the deep end of what life was like for those on the frontiers of early "civilisation". Some will complain that it's yet another film casting the English as the bad guys but there's no hiding the truth. The British Empire was responsible for a lot of the worst atrocity known to mankind and in these days of bumbling idiot politicians trying to cast the empire in the good light it's important not to forget or to sanitise history.

Director Jennifer Kent made The Babadook in 2013. It was a truly unsettling watch about the part grief plays in our lives. The Nightingale continues along those lines but this time it's about a woman sharpening her grief to a point, a point to slay her attackers with, to use to reclaim her agency. Billy's grieving too, for the loss of his family, his way of life, his culture ripped asunder in the name of empire building. Together they make a formidable team but it ain't an easy friendship. 19th century life is depicted with a painful accuracy. Just because Clare is the lead it doesn't mean she's perfect. She's openly racist towards Billy and the film's verbal violence is sometimes as harsh as the physical. He's downtrodden by everyone but thankfully in one of the film's most humane moments we get to see his reaction to a small, simple moment of human kindness and it will break you in two. It's hard to believe this is Baykali Ganambarr's acting debut. He's superb in the part, so likable, tough as nails but fragile as the cobwebs weaved across the landscape.

Ireland's own Aisling Franciosi nails the lead role, the titular Nightingale. A driven woman, built by a lifetime of misery, who snaps. Men have used her up and cast her aside. Even when they see her coming for them she's not a risk to them until a moment of gruesome retribution shows us she very much is. Kent rubs our face in the violence, every squelch, every snap, there's no vicarious enjoyment of revenge here. In fact there's nothing remotely entertaining here. Sam Claflin's Hawkins is no panto boo-hiss bad guy we can laugh at, he's a vile, disgusting, vicious personalisation of every dominion, colony, protectorate & mandate. He'll make your skin crawl. The kind of bad guy that suffocates the screen with his every appearance. The film's 4:3 framing increases that suffocating feeling too, it's set in a wide open country but still feels claustrophobic. Somehow though, in the midst of all it's misery and it's horror (yes i'd very much consider this a horror film) Kent manages to find flashes of beauty, small slivers of relief for us. The Palawa kani that guides Clare, a beautiful rendition of an old Irish folk song, a relived smile on Billy's face and a final image that will stay with you for weeks to come.

The Nightingale is out now in selected cinemas but it's also available to stream on google movies. It's a visceral, bludgeoning watch that's full of justifiable rage. You won't enjoy it but you will admire it.