"I've always had a fascination with Tasmania," writer-director Jennifer Kent said. It was considered the most brutal of the Australian colonies, known as 'hell on earth' through the western world at the time. Repeat offenders were sent there; the rapists, murderers, hardened criminals. And severe punishments were devised for them to strike fear in the hearts of those back in Britain, to deter them from crime. Women on the other hand, who'd often committed minor crimes, were sent to Tasmania to even the gender balance. They were outnumbered eight to one. You can imagine what kind of an environment that would set up for women. It was not a good place or time for them. And in terms of the Aboriginal invasion, what happened in Tasmania is often considered the worst attempted annihilation by the British of the Aboriginal people and everything they hold dear."
For director Jennifer Kent, the character of Clare (Aisling Franciosi) had to possess a fierce tenacity and a steely strength, character traits that came from close research into the era. "In the convict prison in Richmond, Tasmania, a plaque on the wall explains that women inmates were put in solitary confinement for three weeks straight - no light, freezing cold, on a sandstone floor with a hessian sack." explained Kent. "They were put in for talking back to their masters, or getting drunk, or other very minor crimes. They would be released after twenty-one days to go back to that same master, and they would deliberately commit another crime so that they could be put back into solitary confinement." She added: "That made me think: 'Why would a woman do that? What was so bad about that situation that they would prefer total deprivation?' The answer is rape, beatings, physical and psychological abuse. As she took form in my head, Clare emerged as a woman who has come from a very, very difficult background. To be poor in the Georgian era was not seen as an economic problem but a moral weakness. So convicts were viewed with next to no compassion. And female convicts were seen as worse than male convicts, because women were meant to be a symbol of purity. And the Irish were seen by the English as the 'scum of the earth', one step up from Aboriginal people, who were viewed as animals. So it made sense to me that she was also going to be Irish."
Extensive research was done by writer-director Jennifer Kent on the history of convicts in Australia and the history of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The filmmakers and cast also researched PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), violence against women, and how people deal with trauma.
Clinical psychologists had to be brought on set in order to help the actors deal with filming the more brutal, traumatic scenes.
Actress Aisling Franciosi, who played Clare, worked with a psychologist, Dr. Elaine Barrett, who took Franciosi to a Domestic Violence centre to speak with the staff who work with women who have been abused, either over a period of time, or in isolated incidents. "That gave me a real insight into how these women keep going, what they feel and the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that they experience," Franciosi said. "One of the things I learned at the centre was that, globally, rape is a statistic that isn't going down. I was appalled and angered. Why is this still happening? Clare shows how resilient so many women are and how resilient women can be, and that was something that I felt was really important to bring to the screen truthfully and honestly."