The Nightingale

2018 Directed by Jennifer Kent

In 1825, Claire, a 21-year-old Irish convict, chases a British soldier through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. She enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.

Aisling Franciosi Sam Claflin Baykali Ganambarr Damon Herriman Harry Greenwood Ewen Leslie Charlie Shotwell Michael Sheasby Matthew Sunderland Magnolia Maymuru Christopher Stollery Nathaniel Dean Claire Jones Luke Carroll Dallas Mugarra Sam Smith Ben McIvor Anthony Phelan Maggie Blinco Alan Faulkner James O'Connell

Alternative Titles

나이팅게일, Slowik, Соловей, O Rouxinol

drama thriller

136 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Sean Baker 61

Loved Jennifer Kent's The Babadook and knew her follow-up would be accomplished but I didn't expect anything like this. I don't want to spoil anything but it's important for me to mention that this film is extremely violent. It may just be the most violent film I've ever seen. And because the violence is rooted in realism and not pulp, it is extremely disturbing.
I'm sick of hearing about snubs every awards season because in the end, success at awards season is about PR... and how much money is put in to PR. But the lack of recognition of this one stings a little. The Nightingale and Jennifer Kent deserve major props.
The feature has a 1.37 : 1 aspect…
Review by Erik Nordgren ★★★★★ 17

“What’s wrong, soldier boy? Did your mommy not love you?”
The most brutal and intense movie i’ve ever seen in my life.
People walked out, someone fainted. Completely unflinching and horrifying from start to finish, and many scenes made me so uncomfortable i didn’t want to watch anymore. Jennifer Kent is the only person who could have made this film, and her exploration of female trauma and colonialism’s impact on the aboriginal peoples of Australia & Tasmania was incredible. I’m gonna go throw up now.
Review by Alicia Malone ★★★½ 8

A savvy bit of Sundance programming to show this on Australia Day... which made it that much more brutal to watch. The plot is simple, a revenge story set in 1800s Tasmania - but the history that surrounds it is anything but. At school in Australia, I was taught about the “settlement” of our country by the British and the “civilization” of the native people. It was only later that I learnt how many Aboriginies were murdered in the process. Jennifer Kent didn’t hold back, showing this dark side of our history in full force. Which means, it’s not much fun to watch! Definitely not for the faint hearted, as there’s no light to be found. But there’s also no doubt that she is a filmmaker with an unflinching voice.
Review by maria ★★★★

finnick odair, you lil' fucking bitch
Review by matt lynch ★★½ 4

I'm fully on board for the revenge film set in a time and place where its protagonists lives have literally no value to the shitty people in power, but I struggled with the bland moral handwringing over the violence here as well as the almost cartoonishly ostentatious bleakness, elements which basically cancelled each other out for me, making this mostly just a very long sit.
Review by iksvecjart ½ 30

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Just before our screening, Jennifer Kent stood at the front of the theatre and stated that this was the most challenging film for her to make, and crucially, she branded it as her most important (not like there was much to choose from, but okay?). And from the opening scenes, you sense that this is a Serious Film, with its 1.33:1 ratio and its dim (non-existent) colour palette recalling The Witch's aesthetic and its liberal usage of "cunt" and its perpetual indulgence in misery and its glacial pacing. And of course, its themes are grand and topical, much like the remainder of the Prestige horror movement - this one tackles power hierarchies in colonialist Australia: between captain and lieutenant, between…
Review by 🌻 lindsay 🌻 ½ 2

I really wanted this to be an epic feminist revenge story and it kind of got there but I have more than a few issues with this story.
Instead of what I wanted, it was yet another “white person learns that racism is bad actually” story. I don’t like that a white woman made a movie that so graphically shows the violent rape and murder of black aboriginal people. I don’t like that their suffering was written to support the narrative of a white woman.
I think that the history of what aboriginal people suffered is an important story to be told, I just don’t think that it needed to be told by a white person in such an exploitative…
Review by Scott Tobias ★★★★½ 2

Exceptional follow-up to The Babadook, uncompromising in its brutality yet tender in its way. Part rape-revenge Ozsploitation, part historical fiction about the evils of colonialism, the film feels rich as both a play on genre and a statement on foundational sin. Kent ain't fucking around.
Review by san ★★★★ 3

I can’t believe how unrecognized and underappreciated this movie is. The slow-burn and numb atmosphere it incorporates effectively connects with the background of the story. It’s nightmarish and disturbing, but the motive for this narrative is purposeful and beneficial when attempting to provide an almost tangible sense of unwelcomed dominion. It also provides this in a deeper, more rooted scale by including tragic colonization from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community (which she heavily collaborated with the community to respectfully include this into her story).
Review by Brian Tallerico ★★★★½ 2

Devastating and powerful commentary on class, race, and gender with possibly the best performance of the year. It’s brutal but artistically rewarding if you can handle it.
Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★ 2

i nearly passed out like 3 times
Review by SilentDawn ★★ 7

40
Australian director Jennifer Kent, with The Babadook, created a uniquely traumatic horror film of single mothers, one with roots in German expressionism and psychological terror. It's only fitting that she went back to quantify and unpack the colonialist evil of Tasmanian history, indulging in both rape-revenge and period-drama thematic elements. The problem is that it rarely works, its didactic motives at odds with exploitative construction, blurring the line between what is meant to shock and to teach. It isn't a muddled film. Jennifer Kent's vision is clear-eyed, sharp, often too much to bear, but it isn't confused. But just because it's hard to watch, just because it offers historically accurate depictions of violence against women and indigenous people, doesn't…

Recent reviews

Review by matlhatse ★★★

bastard england and bloody white people and a woman who deserves revenge but is simultaneously annoying
Review by Ben Burr ★★★½

Yeah its cool that it's disturbing and unapologetically brutal, but would of been nice to have some levity of a kid fell out of a tree house like in babadook
Review by The Film Geeks ★

Group Rating: 1/5
Chris: 1/5
Nathaniel: 1/5
Film Number: 7
Paired With: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019)
Pairing Theme: Stories Of Women
Chosen By: Caleb & Hannah
Review by maxwolfson ★★★★★

just devastating
Review by Daniel ★★★½

A very harrowing tale. Sometimes it flirted with goingtoo datk for the sake of it. Well made and well acted. It’s good but not great
Review by Jared ★★★

Brutal, unforgiving, harrowing.
Hard to find the right words coming off this. In honesty, I loved parts of this movie, others not not much. There was nothing I hated, but at times I wanted more. The first act of the film was numbing, nearly impossible to watch, however it almost made it a chore to continue watching. I was shaken and cold.
I think the standout is the portrayal of Hawkins. His character is vile, unpredictable and criminally well acted. Sam nails most of his roles, and this is no exception. Billy was a never-ending joy to watch. His charisma was infectious and it broke my heart to reflect on his character and the likelihood of his character's story being…
Review by Alex

This was a brutal, difficult watch. Left me speechless
I'm definitely all in on Jennifer Kent and anything she does in the future.
Review by david ★★★

exagerou na crueldade pra no final ser vazio, billy e clare unico motivo pra manter o interesse nesse filme longo demais
Review by mattheweg ★½

I was deliriously excited about this when it was first announced but the advance notice was so mixed, and the warnings of graphic rapes so vigorous, that it ended up sliding down my watchlist. After finally seeing it I lean toward the negative camp, primarily for two reasons.
First, on a personal level, I have a really hard time with violence this graphic and specific in nature (rape, violence toward babies and children, racist torture porn, etc, all represented here) and so for me to find a film that includes this content worthwhile is a high bar, one that's not reached here.
Second, this is a wildly ambitious film that is attempting to say a lot about Australian history but…
Review by dannispiegs ★★★★

could’ve done without all the unnecessary trauma porn
Review by Hans-Inge Langø ★★★★

Saying I like this movie makes it seem like this is an enjoyable movie. It is not. It is very well made, but the subject matters are excruciating. Kent confronts sexual violence and racism in an unpleasantly direct way.
Review by Clivota ★★½

The good parts only being the beautiful cinematography of the stunning Tasmanian setting and the pretty convincing acting, the film as a whole sadly disappointed me.
It seems to present itself as a commentary on cruel colonial oppression, racism, misogyny and crude, evil assertion of power and vanity, but ends up being more of a revenge story with the other aspects explored only through violent and sexual imagery containing very few scenes sensitive to the cause (those few terse moments are quite succinct though).
I’m surprised the director produced the film in collaboration with the Tasmanian Aboriginal elders for it made (imo) caricatures out of the leads through the major part of the film, depriving them of the sophistication and…