Sam Claflin 'cried a lot' during filming of harrowing thriller The Nightingale

Britain’s colonial brutality with Aboriginal Australians was well-buried by the cinematic universe for a worryingly long time.

However, now The Nightingale has come along to share a rare depiction of the ugly truth behind the West’s imperial rule.

Sam Claflin and Aisling Franciosi portray the horrific realities that occurred in 19th-century Tasmania, including endless rape, murder, violence and slaughtering of Aboriginals.

Jennifer Kent’s new period-thriller sees Sam as Lieutenant Hawkins, a power-hungry monster of a man, who would stop at nothing to gain captaincy and kept Aisling’s character Clare Carroll (an Irish convict) as his servant and victim of his sexual sadism.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, the 33-year-old Peaky Blinders star revealed: ‘I cried a lot really. We choreographed it to within an inch of its life.

‘We built a trust and a level of comfort and an understanding of where one another’s boundaries were and how far we can push it with one another. We wanted everyone to feel as safe as possible.’

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He recalled the moment in the film when unspeakable evils were forced upon Clare, her husband (Michael Sheasby) and her baby, where Sam was afraid he had actually ‘hurt’ Aisling.

‘There were still moments where, I’ll never forget,’ he continued. ‘Where one of the first scenes we did, the initial traumatic event, I think it was week one, I’ll never forget, I think there was a moment where Jennifer said cut and Aisling was still crying and I wasn’t sure whether it was her in character or whether I had hurt her.

‘The trauma of it, pretty much every time we did it we were all crying.’

The movie was based upon very real events, and although it is a tough watch, it holds an important narrative that explains how European colonists almost annihilated the island’s entire indigenous population.

Aisling spilled: ‘There was a lot of hugging on set to reassure each other that we’re okay. We also had a clinical psychologist on set too.

‘She would call for breaks a lot. It wasn’t an ongoing thing, she would come down for the particularly difficult scenes and just make sure we’re okay, call for breaks now and then.’

Aisling spends most of the film with Baykali Ganambarr, a novice actor who plays an Aboriginal tracker Billy helping Clare on her mission of revenge, and he couldn’t be happier that the Aboriginal culture finally got its well-deserved recognition on the big screen.

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‘I am so honoured and proud to be representing Aboriginal Australians on the big screen and showing the wide world that this happened to my people and that we are still here,’ Baykali revealed.

‘So many people across the world don’t know that we still exist, and movies like this will definitely open people’s eyes.’

When asked how he reacted first watching the harrowing film, he said: ‘I was so sad, emotional, happy just all sorts of emotions. Sad and emotional because I can’t believe this happened to my people and happy because our story is finally being told and shared to the rest of the world, to finally be recognised and be known that we Aboriginal people of Australia are still here.

‘The brutality depicted in the movie is only just scratching the surface, it is the first and it is definitely not the last.’

On the bright side, it wasn’t all trauma for the actors of The Nightingale.

As the cast and crew stayed on location for the filming, Sam, Aisling, Baykali and the rest of the team got to wind down from the traumatic days of production.

Aisling laughed: ‘We were all staying together, it wasn’t like we were going back to our own homes. We were all on location, so when we finished we could all hang out and have a drink, play Cards Against Humanity, so it was okay.’

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The Nightingale is out in UK and Ireland cinemas now.

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