Described by director Gaysorn Thavat as “a social justice action film about motherhood,” “The Justice of Bunny King” sees the titular character (Essie Davis, “The Babadook”), a single mom with a record, doing whatever she can to reunite with her kids. As shown in the new trailer for the film, Bunny earns money from washing windshields at traffic lights, dons a “professional corporate entrepreneur but sexy” look while searching for a home, and flouts social services’ rules when necessary.
Bunny promises her younger child, daughter Shannon (Amelie Baynes), that they will all be together in a new house by the little girl’s birthday. Shannon is excited, but Bunny’s teen son, Reuben (Angus Stevens), is dubious. “You’re confusing her,” he tells his mother.
Struggling to find a suitable home and sick of being separated from her children, Bunny fantasizes about “[driving] away into a new life.” So that’s what she and her angsty teen niece, Tonya (Thomasin McKenzie, “Last Night in Soho”), decide to do. They’re going to find a car, get Bunny’s kids, and start anew, authorities be damned.
“I absolutely love this character — her joy, wit, and determination, and the fact that she gets it wrong, is deeply conflicted, and yet she makes me smile,” Thavat told Women and Hollywood ahead of “Bunny King’s” run at Tribeca 2021. “We have so many narratives about male heroism, yet the strength of women and mothers is rarely celebrated. Sometimes just being a woman, a mother, and surviving in these punitive systems is heroic.”
“The Justice of Bunny King” will be in select theaters September 23. Sophie Henderson (“Baby Done”) penned the script.
