Sydney cinemagoers walked out of the premiere of Australian director Jennifer Kent’s revenge thriller “The Nightingale”
The cinemagoers reportedly walked out of a screening of “The Nightingale” at the Sydney Film Festival over its graphic sexual harassment and murder scenes.
The film was screened on Sunday and Monday nights at Sydney cinemas with director Jennifer Kent and the cast Aisling Franciosi as Clare, a 21-year-old convict woman pursuing a British officer in revenge for horrific atrocities.
At the Monday premiere several people also walked out when the movie was screened.
The director was grilled at the post-screening question-and-answer session with the media. About the movie Kent told the audience the movie was “a difficult watch” and her motivation was to illuminate a part of Australian history that was seldom talked about.
“My commitment to cinema is just to make people feel something,” she told the audience.
“Even if that’s anger at me or the situation,” she added.
Kent who previously directed the international hit horror The Babadook, also stars Sam Claflin as the British officer Hawkins, Baykali Ganambarr as an Indigenous tracker.
Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley said he was excited to present the “powerful and uncompromising” film.
“Despite some audience members choosing not to remain — we had about 20 and 30 people leave each screening out of approximately 600 and 800 in attendance — the film received such strong applause, and the majority of the audience did stay to the end of the screenings for the question and answer sessions,” he said.
The film has been praised on the international festival circuit, winning the special jury prize and best young actor for Ganambarr at the Venice Film Festival last year.
