Were it not for Marie Kreutzer's “Gentle Monster”, Beth de Araújo's “Josephine” would have been the most devastating film I saw at MIFF this year, as it is about the loss of innocence for an eight year old girl who is an unwitting witness to a vicious rape while out for an early morning jog with her father. It is such a heavy film dealing with both the after effects on Josephine after witnessing such a crime, as well as the balancing act of her parents who try to navigate around explaining what she saw so she may understand it and come to terms with it, while trying to protect her from it at the same time. I am not sure I have seen a film like this before examining the trauma of a child while also exploring how difficult it is to help her make sense of something she does not understand. One thing de Araújo does well in her film is highlight just how many people can be affected by such a violent crime, as it is not just the rape victim who suffers.
Director Beth de Araújo starts her film right out of the gate with the rape scene taking place within the first ten minutes of “Josephine”. Before it, we get a number of small scenes which show the great rapport father and daughter have together, their love of sports, and the fact that Josephine is a normal eight-year-old girl. Jo and her father, Damien, become separated at the park due to the competitive nature between the two with Jo attempting to prove she is faster than her Dad at running. When she reaches a fork on the path, she bolts down the left side, while Damien mistakenly assumes she went to the right, separating them for a couple of minutes. While alone, Jo witnesses the sexual assault taking place right in front of her, but doesn't understand what is actually going on, except that the woman doesn't like it. Horrified, she watches as the man chokes the woman before making a noise that stops the crime in progress and turns the man's attention to Jo herself, just as her father returns to chase the rapist away. This furthers the trauma for poor Jo who is now left alone with the victim as she attempts to put her clothes back on, while in tears herself. De Araújo does not sugarcoat any of this, as the rape is very graphic and shocking to behold. Thankfully it is all shown from Jo's point of view so there is some distance to it and Mason Reeves, the little girl who plays Josephine, is never in the same shot as any of the violent or sexual material that is taking place. This is interesting too, because de Araújo would have had the same dilemma as Damien and Claire, the characters in her film, in working out just how much she needed to share with her young star about these scenes without traumatising her in the process.
After the assault, Jo has trouble processing everything she has just seen and starts to suffer from behavioural issues that leads her to lashing out and doing some horrible things to both her classmates at school and her parents at home. While overhearing her parents talking about the incident, she hears a word she doesn't understand and then googles it for a definition. The word? Rape. Something no eight-year-old girl or boy should ever need to know about, and this discovery of a new word leads to some painful questions and awkward encounters. In sports class she is running against the boys, beating them all and Jo turns around and says “None of you can rape me!” which shocks the teacher into calling Jo's parents to school, while a moment in the car ride home has Jo asking her mother if she had ever been raped, which is just heartbreaking to hear from your child.
The dilemma for Damien and Claire is just how much do they explain to Jo, and by withholding information from her, under the guise of her own protection, does it do more harm than good? One thing is for certain, it clearly shows just how hard this situation is for parents and that parents do not always have the right answer for everything. The way Damien and Claire deal with the situation differs greatly too, as Damien is all about the physical, the here and now. Let's take action, so we can control the situation, so he makes sure Jo enrols in self defence classes so she can protect herself if ever the moment did arise where she may be in danger. He is also trying to be positive about the future, but is this giving Jo a false sense of security? Claire on the other hand is much more worried about the mental side of things, and how this will affect Jo in the future from a mental health perspective, because it is impossible to be able to tell how much this incident has affected her. It is never mentioned outright in the film, but it is hinted at that Claire herself may have gone through something similar when she was a child and is still suffering the effects from, and that she doesn't want Jo to go through what she went through by making sure she talks about what happened, and then seek professional help to deal with the trauma that comes with it. Both parents want what is best for Jo at all times, there is never a question about that, but often they do or say (especially poor Damien) the wrong things at the wrong time which clouds Jo's understanding of the world.
During the film, Damien and Claire find a moment together to engage in some relaxing sex which Jo walks in on and is horrified that her father is hurting her mother, screaming “get off her, daddy! Don't hurt Mummy!!”. It is such a sad scene because how is this young girl meant to know the difference between sex and rape when to her eyes they look so similar. This in turn means the parents have to engage Jo in another awkward conversation, and it is easy to see how this poor child loses her innocence at such an early age. There are other heartbreaking moments in the film like when Jo essentially shuns her father because he is a man and she doesn't trust men anymore, and there is a shocking moment involving a very pregnant Claire that I do not want to reveal but will make your mouth drop.
Channing Tatum is excellent as Damien, in what is his most mature and serious role to date. He comes across as a great father who loves spending time with his daughter, but constantly frustrated at not knowing the right things to do or say to her to make her life easier. Tatum always appears to be moving, like action while solve everything, whereas Gemma Chan is quiet and calm as Claire, but just as concerned. Like I said above, the fact that it appears that she may have gone through a sexual assault herself when she was young or witnessed one, there is different nuances in her performance as it looks like she is recounting what happened in her childhood, and then trying to do the opposite so Jo wouldn't have so many regrets later in life. Mason Reeves, as Josephine, just steals this movie though and your heart cannot help but go out to her, as she is so confused about everything going on in her life, as a world she had no knowledge of is suddenly exposed to her. She has big, expressive eyes that give away what she is feeling from confusion, terror, anger, and even fun. She is fantastic in this and is definitely the beating heart of “Josephine”.
There was not much I didn't like about “Josephine”, as I think director Beth de Araújo has handled the difficult material very maturely and head on, which was the best way possible, but there was one directorial decision I was not a huge fan of. After the assault, poor Jo is traumatised by the attacker and can not get him out of her mind. De Araújo has decided to handle this by having the actor who plays the rapist constantly showing up in Jo's room, laying next to the bed, opening the door for her, reflected in her mirror etc. Personally, I think the visualisation of Jo's trauma was a little too on the nose, and just her dialogue of her saying “I see him everywhere!!” would have sufficed and got the same point across. Every time I saw him, I just rolled my eyes because it seemed so obvious and it wasn't needed. The film is powerful enough without this visualisation of trauma. The only other minor issue I had is that in the final third of the film, “Josephine” becomes a courtroom drama and it does drag a tiny bit, although I admit there are some great moments within it like the devastation of her parents as they watch her being cross examined, and the mic drop moment Jo herself has directed at the defence council when they are attacking her for not helping the woman being raped. This is also another thing that poor Jo has to come to terms with which is firstly, how was the man allowed out on bail after doing what she saw him do and how he still might not go to jail despite her evidence. These are grown up issues forced onto this poor little girl, which through her eyes would make little sense at all. Seriously, explain how bail makes sense to a young girl who saw this man do what he did.
Overall, I found “Josephine” to be another harrowing and heartbreaking film, but one that has been so very well made and acted, fully respecting the difficult subject matter on display. It has the most beautiful and heart wrenching final scene, situated on a beach, that if you are not choking back tears by it's end, then you are a cold-hearted bastard. Yes, I will admit that “Josephine” is not an easy watch at times, especially if you are a parent, but it is an important film that I highly recommend to those of you who like tough cinema.
4 Stars.
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