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Rabbit Proof Fence Director: Cast: Releasing: Nationally on February 14, 2002 Rated: PG
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Mending fences
Noyce, who made the seminal Australian film Newsfront and the thriller Dead Calm before heading to Hollywood, has cut through the rhetoric and the misplaced emotion. Rabbit Proof Fence brings us an intimate view of how the policy of forced separation of "half caste" children affected both the Aboriginal community and the individuals involved. In doing so, he not only humanises the issues, but brings them into sharper focus than a dozen political talkfests could ever do. The film follows the remarkable story of Molly (Everlyn Sampi), Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and Gracie (Laura Monaghan). In 1931, they came to the attention of Western Australia's Protector of Aborigines, Mr Neville (Kenneth Branagh). He ordered them to be taken from their community at Jigalong in the remote north of the state Moore River; 1,200 miles to the south. Moore River was a missionary settlement where it was intended the girls would be trained as "domestics" for white families. A less obvious agenda though was to introduce them into white society, with the intention of "breeding out" their Aboriginality. But the determined Molly, homesick and heartbroken, wasn't about to stick around the unfamiliar confines of Moore River very long. With the two younger girls in tow, she sets out for Jigalong, using the rabbit proof fence - the world's longest fence - as her guide. >>>
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Noyce's
film is deceptively simple on the surface, but is in fact remarkably complex.
Rather than adopting a hard and fast view on the issues involved, Noyce
explores them through his characters. It would have been easy to make
Neville the villain of the piece; but his character is revealed as a well-meaning
but misguided man. It also has to be kept in mind that while many of the
attitudes displayed on both sides of the story are certainly not consistent
with contemporary Rabbit
Proof Fence wouldn't be the film it is without the remarkable performance
of Everlyn Sampi as Molly. She's sassy, perhaps overconfident but displays
the kind of steely determination that would be needed to undertake a journey
of that magnitude. She dominates the screen whenever she's on it, and
as a result, Tianna Sansbury as Daisy and Laura Monaghan as Gracie are
pushed into the margins somewhat. Kenneth Branagh gives a nicely shaded
performance as Neville; full of starched-shirt propriety and bureaucratic
efficiency, yet possessing an unshakeable belief in what he's doing. The
performance of the film though belongs to David Gulpilil as Tracker. Despite its other considerable virtues, the script seems to get rather bogged down in the middle stages, seemingly unable to strike a balance between conveying the immensity of the task facing the girls and still keeping the narrative moving along. The resulting sense of inertia waters down its impact until the final scenes lift it again. Rabbit Proof Fence is an important and moving new Australian film. It's not a polemic on indigenous rights - this is a personal story told on a very human scale, which enlightens rather than obscures the issues. It deserves to be seen by every Australian. David Edwards Send us your feedback on this article or anything else in The Blurb |
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With
all the debate (not all of it terribly informed), controversy and media
attention given to Australia's Stolen Generation of Aboriginal children,
it's surprising that Australian filmmakers have been slow to take up the
issue in cinematic form. Equally surprising perhaps is the fact that it's
expatriate director Phillip Noyce who has finally brought the issue into
mainstream cinema. But what's not at all surprising is that he's done
so with a great deal of style and acuity. 
values, they were prevalent at the time. 
With
his piercing eyes and weathered features, he relies almost entirely on
gesture and movement to bring a real sense of menace to the character.