Take a look at the first trailer to arrive for The Nightingale, the buzzed-about next movie from Aussie filmmaker Jennifer Kent (The Babadook).

Set in 1825 Australia during the country’s colonisation by European settlers, the film follows a 21-year-old Irish convict (Aisling Franciosi – The Fall, Lyanna Stark in Game of Thrones) who has served a 7-year sentence under an abusive master (Sam Claflin). He refuses to release her, which leads to retaliation by her husband. Well… things spiral. The Lieutenant and his cronies commit a horrifying crime, leaving Clare broken, before he heads up north. She decides to purse him, enlisting the help of an Aboriginal tracker (Baykali Ganambarr) to track the man down in the wilderness.

The reviews have been very promising from the film’s festival circuit run so far. The critics describe a brutal, evocative film, one that further cements Kent as a director and writer to take note of. The tense trailer below looks great.

The Nightingale, also starring Baykali Ganambarr, Damon Herriman and Ewen Leslie, will be opening in the US on August 2 and arriving in Australia on August 29.

Official synopsis for The Nightingale: