RABBIT

Australia, 2017, 103 minutes, Colour.
Adelaide Clemens, Alex Russell, Veerle Baetens, Jonny Pasvolsky.
Directed by Luke Shanahan.

Rabbit is a film from South Australia, a drama, psychological drama, touches of horror. Is a first feature film of Luke Shanahan and was well received.

The film opens with a dream – and the dreams continue throughout the film. They are more and more significant as we find that the central character, Maud, is searching for her sister, Cleo, who has disappeared.

Maud spends time in Germany, has her own physical and mental collapse and its treated in the hospital and then returned home – her parents not enthusiastic to see her again.

Because of her dreams and the mystery of her sister’s disappearance, Maud leaves home and makes a journey of pursuit and discovery. She is helped by her sister’s fiance, Ralph, Alex Russell, as well is a young Detective who blames himself for not being able to solve the mystery of Maud’s disappearance. She continues to have the dreams, more and more identifying with her sister – with Adelaide Clemens playing both sisters.

The search leads her to a mysterious commune, some strange characters, a mentally impaired large girl, mysterious boys and girls, a man without a face, adult laboratory, and a seemingly sympathetic woman who is supported by her husband. She is played by the Belgian actress Veer;e Baetens.

As the film becomes more mysterious, it is revealed at the sympathetic woman has had her own problems with her sister, has been employed by a board of management and commissioned to do experimental work on twins and their identity and identification. This leads to more harrowing experiences for Maud, discoveries about her sister, some violence and deaths, and violent ending.

Because of the complexity of the screenplay, this is a film which demands constant audience attention.

1. The title, the focus? The explanation of hunting the rabbits, holding the rabbits, trapping the rabbits?

2. The Australian settings, the bush, homes in the bush, the commune, the houses and caravans, the laboratories, the mansion? The contrast with the sequences in Germany, the railway station, the hospitals, theatres? The musical score?

3. The linear story of the disappearance of Cleo, the effect on her twin sister, Maude, Maude in Germany, her collapse, recovery, the return to Australia, the continued search for her sister, the reaction of her parents, their hostility, Cleo’s fiance, the detective on the case, Maude leaving and searching, the commune, the large girl and her information, the encounters with Nerida, her husband?

4. The dreams, the fantasies, Maude running in the bush, the events for her sister? The identification between the twins? Love, tensions, the disappearance? The compulsion for Maude to find her sister?

5. The character of Maude, her collapse in Germany and the treatment, the hostility of the parents, Ralph and the past, his continued helping, the detective and his blaming himself? Maude and the identification with her sister, sharing the same experiences, the dreams?

6. The people in the commune, friendly, sinister? Ralph and his presence, his assertion that he was trying to help? The policeman, torture and death? Ralph and his twin? The man without the face?

7. The eerie atmosphere, Nerida and her husband, welcoming Maude, getting her confidence, the growing trust? The drugs, the ward, the treatment, physical, psychological? Maude and the identification with her sister? The same thoughts, the same words, the same behaviour?

8. The group, the board of the meetings, the commission from Nerida, her own background with her sister, her motivation in force? Her husband, sinister as well as supporting? The treatment, the effect on Maude? The other children, the boy, the girl, experiments? The board wanting the forming of an identical twin?

9. Ethical issues, Nerida and her commission, her mission, her motivation, insinuating herself, her making demands, the continued process with Maude, the treatment of Cleo?

10. The board meeting, praising Nerida’s success? The effect on Nerida? Her leaving the meeting, in the kitchen?

11. Maude, the cumulation of the effect of the treatment on her, what happened to Ralph and the detective, what happened to her sister, the identification, getting the knife, stabbing Nerida?

12. The complexity of the plot, the complexity of Maude’s experience, the horror elements of physical and psychological experimentation?