(andsubsequenthatredfor)theEnglish,theysharea vibrant
oralandmusicaltraditionaswellas a strong desire to live the
samewayastheirforebears.
Thepairalsosharea mysticalandspiritualdimension.Billy
speaksofhistotem,Mangana(theblackbird),aligninghimself
with its freedomand strength.For her part, Clare has nightly
visionsof herhusbandandchild,whichturnnightmarishasshe
beginsenactinghervengeance.Andin a particularlypower-
ful parallel– and opposition– Clare and Billy are interwoven
throughavian designations.Clare’ssingingmakesher valuable
to the officers:she is the ‘nightingale’of the title (a nickname
givenherbyHawkins),a captivesongbird.Billy,ontheother
hand, is a pest to be exterminated:his acts of identification
withhisbirdtotem,dancingtoandsingingthesongofthe
Mangana,areinitiallypresentedasbarbaricandstrange.
Gradually,however,weareinvitedtoconnectthetwo,andto
seethemasessentiallysimilarin theiroppressionandOthering.
Whileit is clearlymodelledontherevenge-thrillerformula,
TheNightingalerefusesto endorseviolence– not even the
violencethat Clare inflictson her tormentors.Catharsisis
steadfastlywithheld.In fact, when Clare is first able to attack
andmurderoneofthesoldiers,hervictimis theremorseful
Jago,whomshestabstodeathin anexcruciatinglydrawnout
and sickeningsequence.As viewers,we are primedby Clare’s
grim journeyinto the wilderness,by her doggeddetermina-
tion to see justicedone, to feel some kind of victorywhen she
takes down her first victim.Instead,we are utterlyhorrified.
ThiscarefullycalibratedresponsespeakstoKent’sinten-
tions and craft. In her director’s statement, the filmmaker notes:
I wantedto tell a story aboutviolence.In particular,the fall
out of violencefrom a feminineperspective.To do this I’ve
reachedback into my own country’shistory.The coloni
zationofAustraliawasa timeofinherentviolence[:]tow
ards Aboriginalpeople,towardswomen,and towardsthe
landitself,whichwas wrenchedfrom its first inhabitants.
Colonization by nature is a brutal act.^4
Althoughit is set in a specifictime and place in Australian
history,TheNightingalefunctionsasanindictmentofall
formsofcolonialism,allformsofoppressionand,ultimately,
violenceitself. While Kent’spositioningof Clare at thecentre
of the narrativealreadyemphasisesfemaleagency,its rape-
revengearc also – much like that in other rape-revengeworks
from this country– interrogatesAustralia’svalorisationof
the‘wildcolonialboys’mythologyandmachoassertions
of power.^5 Moreover,the film’s coloniallythemedprecursors
in Australiancinema,althoughfrequentlydealingwithsimilar
topicsandcomingfroma similarpoliticalandculturalangle,
nonethelessindulgein thecatharsisofrighteousretribution
- recall:Sam Kelly (HamiltonMorris)slayingthe rapist Harry
March(Leslie)inSweetCountry, JimmieBlacksmith(Tom E
Lewis)takingvengefulretributionagainsthisoppressorsin
TheChantofJimmieBlacksmith, orthebiblicalfratricideof
TheProposition. Bycontrast,whileTheNightingalegoesto
extremelengthstodetailthehorrorsenduredbyitsprotago-
nists,therebyleavingusin nodoubtaboutthemotivations
fuellingtheirrage,itsrefusaltoexcusetheirownviolentac-
tionsmeanstheyareheldaccountablein a waythatfewother
workshave had the courageto do. If, as the film frequently
illustrates,theviolenceis systemic, then all who participate
in the system are culpable.
Whichmeansthat, by the film’s own moral system,there
canbenohappyendingforTheNightingale; toindulgein
such wouldbe counterto all that has gone before.In fact,
Kentgoessofarastotoywiththenotionofanticlimax.
WhileHawkinsis killedbyBilly,whoeventuallylearnsthat
hisentiretribehasbeeneradicatedbytheEnglish,weknow
by this point that such an act does not bring an end to the
cycle of oppression;indeed,the inequalitiesour societyis
facedwithalmost 200 yearslatercrystallisethereverber-
ating effectsof not just the soldiers’aggression,but also
Billy’s and Clare’squestsfor revenge.‘[T]he arrogancethat
drives[colonisation]lives on in the modernworld,’Kent re-
flects.‘For this reason,I consider this a current story despite
[it] being set in the past.’^6
TheNightingaleends abruptly.Havingfled Launceston
afterthekillingofHawkins,withBillyseeminglymortally
wounded,thepairwatchthesunriseovertheocean.Billy’s
injury aside,we’re given very few indicationsas to what will
come next – there is no sense of conclusion,no denouement,
andcertainlynogenre-orperiod-appropriaterideintothe
sunset.Givenourknowledgeoftheultimatefutilityofallthat
hasprecededthisscene,thereseemstobenootherpossible
conclusionthansimplyceasingthetellingofthisstringof
horrificevents– which is exactlywhat the film does, suddenly
cuttingto the creditswith no fanfare.It’s as if, by modelling,
the film invitesus, too, to sever our connectionto the cycle of
powerandviolenceofwhichwearepart;insteadofgrappling
forthenextrungin thehierarchy,wemustseektostepoffit.
Thisendingis a bravechoice,andTheNightingaleis a
brave film. Followingon from the successof her horrorfilm
debut,it wouldhavecomeasnosurpriseif Kenthadconti-
nued in a similarvein and genre.Instead,she has delivered
a work of uncommonambitionand thematicscope– one that
doesn’tturnawayfromshockingandpotentiallyalienatingits
audience in service to its own unshakable moral compass.TravisJohnsonis a freelancecriticwhohaswrittenforThe
Guardian,Empire,FilmInk,Flicks.com.au, SBS and many more.mEndnotes(^1) SeeGregLehman,‘TasmanianGothic:TheArtof Australia’s
ForgottenWar’,GriffithReview, issue39, 2013,pp. 193–204,
availableat https://griffithreview.com/articles/tasmanian-gothic/,
accessed3 June 2019.
(^2) ‘If you do a moviewith a rape and don’t showit, you hide the
point ... the thing is that if you showit in a disgustingway, you
help peopleto avoidthat kind of situation.’See GasparNoé,
quotedin GeoffreyMacnab,‘“The RapeHad to Be Disgusting
to Be Useful”’,The Guardian, 2 August2002,https://www.
theguardian.com/film/2002/aug/02/artsfeatures.festivals,
accessed3 June 2019.
(^3) TheresaSainty,a staffmemberat theTasmanianAboriginal
Centre’sLanguageRetrievalProgram,describespalawakani
as a ‘compositelanguage’that ‘literallytranslatesas “Tassie
blackfella talk”’;see Causeway Films,The Nightingalepress
kit, 2018,p. 20.
(^4) JenniferKent, ‘Director’s Statement’, in Causeway Films, ibid.,
p. 4.
(^5) See AlexandraHeller-Nicholas,‘Fair Gamesand WastedYouth:
Twenty-fiveYearsof AustralianRape-revengeFilm (1986–2011)’,
Metro, no. 170, Spring 2011, pp. 86–7.
(^6) Kent, op. cit., p. 4.
http://www.metromagazine.com.au | © ATOM | Metro Magazine 201• 11