THE NIGHTINGALE
Australia, 2018, 135 minutes, Colour.
Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Damon Herriman, Ewen Leslie, Harry Greenwood, Charlie Shotwell, Charlie Jampijinpa Brown, Michael Sheasby.
Directed by Jennifer Kent.
This is one of Australia’s most powerful films. It is a dark drama – and, quite demanding to watch. But it offers an invitation to go into the depths of human experience in Australia, an exploration of what Hobbs called “man’s inhumanity to man� and, especially in this drama, more literally man’s inhumanity to woman.
The writer-director, initially actress, Jennifer Kent, made quite an impact in 2014 with her imaginative horror story, The Babadook. Here she goes into Van Diemen’s Land, 1825 – a rather unrelenting visit to a time that few in the film’s audience might want to have lived through.
The title is initially beguiling, Claire, a young convict from Ireland who has served her term has been married to an Irishman and has borne a baby. She is still waiting for the documents for her release. We see her doing all kinds of menial work, hard taskmasters and mistresses, and singing in the local tavern, the British lieutenant being her greatest admirer. But, small birds can easily be caught and destroyed – and, the audience has to share Claire’s dire fate.
Most Australians don’t go back into the history of the continent from the time of Captain Cook and his declaration that the land belonged to know one, was ‘terra nullius’ with the judgement that the inhabitants of the land were less than human. There was no knowledge then that the aboriginal peoples had lived and thrived here for more than 60,000 years.
And this is the context for Claire’s story, Claire, somewhat shockingly, being as dismissive of the aborigines as everyone else – but, dire circumstances, the brutal vengeful attitude of the exploitative lieutenant wanting to destroy Claire, harden the young woman in her suffering and she herself becoming more and more obsessed with vengeance. As the lieutenant makes a journey through the bush from the dead-end convict settlement he is in charge of to Launceston, she employs a young aboriginal man, educated in white ways and language, devoted to his people, to country, his symbolic bird being the Blackbird. They track the expedition to Launceston, a toll-taking journey, violent episodes along the way.
Most audiences will not have seen Aisling Franciosi, an Irish-Italian? actress, put-upon convict becoming fierce pursuer of the arrogant lieutenant (played by British actor Sam Claflin) and his brutal orderly, Ruse (Damon Herriman). The aboriginal young man, Billy, is played by theatre performer, Baykalli Ganambarr. Each is completely convincing in their performance.
Van Diemen’s Land is shown with its harsh terrain, heavy bush, high mountains, swollen rivers, the beginnings of roads through the bush. The convict settlement seems unrelentingly harsh. The glimpses of Launceston indicate the beginnings of transition from settlement to what the whitecomers to the land describe as ‘civilisation’.
Colonial Australia at the beginning of the 19th century is marked by British superiority, to the Irish but, with unwarranted self-assertion, violently hostile to the black population, few scruples in exercising violence towards the men, sexual exploitation and rape towards the women.
This is the kind of film that asks its local audiences, wherever they have come from, prisoners and settlers in the 19th century, migrants and refugees in the 20th century… to acknowledge that our origins have been truly violent, a heritage of massacre, exploitation. And, as we watch this film in the 21st century, we remember that there can be change, with acknowledgement, repentance, an inherited need for honesty and atonement.
While this review has comments on the social impact of The Nightingale, critics will also praise the strength of the writing, the intensity of the direction, the passion of the performances.
1. The director and her reputation? Expectations? The Australian setting, the 19th century, Van Diemen’s land and Australian history? The aborigines and their fate? The colonial superiority? And convicts
2. The title, the term, sweet and singing? Symbol? For Claire? But the reality of her experience? The symbol of the Blackbird? Billy and the Blackbird?
3. 1825, costumes and decor, the harshness of the terrain, of the settlements, the bush, rugged, the colonial town, houses and streets, taverns and offices? The film creating the atmosphere? The musical score?
4. The history Australia, Van Diemen’s land, the convict settlement, harsh life, the prison atmosphere, the harshness of the authorities, the colonial superiority, exercise of violence, newcomers and the attempts at obliterating the original inhabitants of the land? Brutality in the attempts to “civilize�?
5. The dramatisation of race issues, the early 19th century, the attitude of the British, the empty land, the lesser dignity and humanity of the aborigines? Colonialism? The film and the perspective of 21st-century filmmakers, the assessment, treatment of aborigines, violence, rapes and massacres, superiority – and the 19th century extinction of aborigines in Tasmania?
6. “Man’s inhumanity to man�? Interactions, treatment, realism, brutality, violation? And the explicit treatment of this on screen?
7. The introduction to Claire, from Ireland, her age, convict, her crimes, to Van Diemen’s Land, her freedom but the Lieutenant not giving her the documents, her work as a maid, the menial tasks, her relationship with her husband, love her baby? At the tavern? Her singing? The response of the Lieutenant, the sexual encounter, attack, abuse? His despising her? Her character, her plight?
8. The Lieutenant, British, his character, age, arrogance, expecting promotion, his criticism of the officer, the interview with him, the officer not supportive of him? His treatment of his men, especially Ruse? Power, authority, sexual domination, and murders?
9. Ruse as a character, his abruptness while reviewing the men, his authority over them, subservient to the Lieutenant? The other officer and the visit to Claire and her husband?
10. The crisis, Aidan and his wanting to defend his wife, her trying to calm him down, the interactions in the house, the challenge, defying Lieutenant, his death? The baby, its crying, its being killed? Claire and her weeping, her being bashed?
11. The Lieutenant and his entourage, going to Launceston for the promotion? Uncle Charlie and his guidance? The convict group, the boy, the Lieutenant and his motivations?
12. Claire, the experience of the violation, the deaths, her grief for her baby? The changing to revenge, becoming more obsessed and determined, the dreams and her being haunted?
13. The encounter with Billy, his background, his tribe decimated? His age, in himself, his education? His sense of country? Skill in languages? His attitudes and skills? The symbol of the Blackbird? A genial personality? Claire and her superior colonial attitude towards him? The eventual discussion about the link between the Irish and the aborigines and their being oppressed?
14. The journey, Billy and his skills, Claire and her determination, going to the river, her being rescued? The physical difficulties, the danger, the need for firm food, Claire with the gun, the time taken for the journey, to catch up with the expedition, walking and riding, camping, eating the insects, the later hunting of the wallaby with Billy’s carving the spear?
15. The Lieutenant, his journey, treatment of the convicts, treatment of uncle Charlie? Ruse and the convicts? The boy, the Lieutenant teaching him about the gun? Uncle Charlie leading them to the wilderness? The Lieutenant killing him? The episode with the aboriginal woman, her baby, Ruse and the rape, the Lieutenant and the rape? The men coming to rescue her, the confrontation, their being shot, the woman killed?
16. Billy and Claire, the Lieutenant seeing them, Billy and his being spared so that he would lead them to Launceston, the boy unwilling to shoot, the Lieutenant killing him? A confrontation with the flare?
17. Claire and her revenge on the soldier, catching up, his running, her pursuit, his pleading, her shooting him, the death?
18. Claire confronting the Lieutenant, not able to kill him, her dreams? Going into the water? Surviving, the decision to go to the town? Billy leading the group, saving them, his hiding, Claire intervening?
19. Claire going to the tavern, the Lieutenant in the group, the captain? Claire publicly defying him, her explanations and taunts, the reaction of the captain? Her singing – and destroying the Lieutenant? Ultimately his death? Billy and his role?
20. Claire and Billy leaving?
21. The audience sharing the journey, immersed in the harsh colonialism, arrogant superiority, the persecution of the aborigines?
22. The film dramatising the past, no holds barred, the impact for the 21st-century audience and the need to see and understand the harshness of the past?
