Hierarchies of Horror: The Violent Refrains of Jennifer Kent's 'The Nightingale'

Jennifer Kent's sophomore feature is a well-told tale with an unashamedly political thrust. Depicting clashes between convicts, colonists and the Aboriginal people whose land they have seized, the film offers both a harrowing account of a brutal period in Australian history and a provocation for its audience to dismantle the systems that have birthed such violence in the first place, writes Travis Johnson.

Additional keywords:
Indigenous, race, racism, colonisation, invasion, Irish, English, intercultural, resistance, revolt, revenge, dispossession, discrimination, Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Tasmania, Black War, Gothic.