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Film Description
In Rabbit Proof Fence, after being forcibly removed from their homes and placed in a government camp, three young aboriginal girls escape and attempt the 1500 mile walk home relying on their wits and ingenuity to keep them one step ahead of the constabulary and a native tracker. They need to find the rabbit fence that might just guide them on their way.
During the most part of the early to mid-20th century, Australia's government policy was that mixed race Aboriginal children would be better off being brought up as white and so forcefully removed them from their homes to be trained as domestic servants. This film follows the true story of 3 such children - cousins Molly, Gracie and Daisy, who in 1931 found themselves being taken from their parents, sent to an institution and forced to forget their family and culture. However, Molly leads her 2 cousins in a daring escape across the outback with no water and only the fence erected across the country to stop the epidemic of rabbits as a guide. Kenneth Branagh plays the government official charged with the return of the girls and the story is based on the book by Doris Pilkington, the neice of Daisy.
A truely fascinating film about 3 half casts that get taken away from their mother, and escape a camp place to attempt the 1500 mile walk back to their Mom. With Molly... more >
A truely fascinating film about 3 half casts that get taken away from their mother, and escape a camp place to attempt the 1500 mile walk back to their Mom. With Molly being the oldest, Gracie and daisy look up to her and she chooses what they do. On their journey they meet lots of other people, and they help out by giving them food and water.
This is an amazing film of many, a good choice to findout what racism is like and how racist people treat half-casts. < less
Howard Schumann on 24th September 2003
Set in Western Australia in 1931, Rabbit-Proof Fence, a film by Australian director Phillip Noyce, is a scathing attack on the Australian government's ‘eugenics’ polic... more >
Set in Western Australia in 1931, Rabbit-Proof Fence, a film by Australian director Phillip Noyce, is a scathing attack on the Australian government's ‘eugenics’ policy toward aboriginal half-castes. For six decades, continuing policies begun by the British, the government of Australia forcibly removed all half-caste (mixed race) aborigines from their families "for their own good" and sent them to government camps where they were raised as servants, converted to Christianity, and eventually assimilated into white society.
The film tells the true story of three aboriginal girls, 14-year old Molly Kelley, her 8-year old sister Daisy, and their 10-year old cousin Gracie, who escaped from confinement in a government camp and set off for home across the vast and lonely Australian Outback. It is a simple story of indomitable courage, told with honest emotion. Christopher Doyle magnificently photographs the stunning Australian landscape, and a haunting score by Peter Gabriel translates natural sounds of birds, animals, wind and rain into music that adds feeling and ‘dreamtime’ to the journey.
The performances by amateur actors Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan are authentic and heartbreakingly affecting. Though the white officials and police are characterized as smug and unfeeling, they are more like bureaucrats carrying out official policies than true villains. Based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara (Molly Kelly’s daughter), Rabbit-Proof Fence is an honest film that avoids sentimentality and lets the courage and natural wisdom of the girls shine through. Hopefully, it will become a vehicle for justice and reconciliation.
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