52 Films by Women Vol 6. 18. THE JUSTICE OF BUNNY KING (Director: Gaysorn Thavat)
Written by Sophie Henderson and directed by Gaysorn Thavat, The Justice of Bunny King wobbles somewhere between comedy and drama, with its initially chipper title character (played by Essie Davis) driven to an act of desperation. Above it hangs a social issue – that mothers in a lower socio-economic bracket in New Zealand struggle to get housing for their fractured family, with the cause of family breakdown driven by an abusive male partner. Henderson and Thavat don’t go further into asking why New Zealand men from a lower socio-economic background turn on their partners and what can be done about it. The majority of the film’s male characters are lecherous twerps who deserve to have ‘scum’ spray-painted onto their cars – as happens here. The only kind man in the film is Maori. It is implied that his morals are kept in check by his mum, who has a strong sense of family. When we first meet her, Bunny is cleaning car windows at a busy intersection for dollar coins, twirling her m...