Controversial on its release in its depiction of the official treatment of indigenous and mixed race children in Australia, Rabbit Proof Fence has become something of a seminal Australian feature from director Philiip Noyce and the telling of a true 1931 story.
Teenage Molly Craig (Everlyn Sampi) along with younger sister Daisy and cousin Gracie are seized by authorities and sent to the Moore River Native Settlement, more than a thousand miles from their home in northern Western Australia. Destined to be trained for domestic service, they decide instead to walk home, following the rabbit proof fence that runs north/south from coast to coast, built to protect the pastoral areas from pests. The journey takes months, constantly confounding entrapment.
A classic chase story with a difference as a wily Molly keeps the girls hidden from the search yet, in bucking authority, wins support along the way with occasional contact with people. It’s ultimately the (heartrending) story of true courage and endurance across a harsh and unwelcome landscape, made the more shocking in the knowledge this really happened.
Rating: 78%
Director: Phillip Noyce (Salt, The Quiet American)
Writer: Christine Olsen – based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara
Main cast: Everlyn Sampi, Kenneth Branagh (Murder on the Orient Express, Hamlet), David Gulpilil (Walkabout, The Proposition)
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