What kind of country takes children away from loving parents? Until the 1970s, it was Australia.
``Rabbit-Proof Fence,'' Phillip Noyce's devastating, life-affirming drama, sheds a shining, ultimately
cleansing light on a dark period in the history of a modern civilized nation.
Based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, the daughter of Molly Craig, the film's biracial heroine,
``Rabbit-Proof Fence'' begins in a part of the western Australian outback known as Jigalong.
Molly (Evelyn Sampi), whose father is a long-departed, white worker on the ``rabbit-proof fence'' that bisects
the entire length of Australia from north to south and was designed to protect farmland, is a headstrong 14-year-old who
lives with her aborigine mother Maude (Ningali Lawford) and grandmother Frinda (Myarn Lawford).
Her playmates, who are also biracial, are her spunky 8-year-old sister Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and
10-year-old cousin Gracie (Laura Monaghan).
At the same time in Perth, A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), the punctilious, Orwellian-titled Chief Protector of
Aborigines in Western Australia, firmly believes the most humane way to deal with the country's ``coloured problem''
is to ``breed out'' theaborigines, particularly aborigines of mixed blood.
The government's policy is to separate children of mixed heritage and transplant them to white society,
where they can work as laborers and domestic help and presumably marry whites.
In scenes of heart-rending terror, the girls are forcibly removed from their parents by local
constables and taken to the distant Moore River Native Settlement, where in spite of decent treatment
and conditions, they pine for home and their mothers.
The film is, on one level, a real-life ``The Lord of the Rings.'' It's the spiritually uplifting tale of an
incredible 1,500-mile quest on foot to return home while the civil authorities mount a massive search for the fugitives.
It's the story of three, indomitable children whose courage became a symbol and cause celebre and helped alter
white Australians' perceptions of the country's cruel official policies.
The fence, which the girls follow as they attempt to return home, is not only a metaphor for the white
man's probably vain attempt to tame this ``alien'' landscape, but also of the symbolic lifeline that links the girls to their spiritual home.
Among the film's many pleasures are the unusually talented young women in the leads and a
marvelously wily performance by David Gulpilil as the veteran aborigine tracker sent to bring the
girls back to the mission. Viewers may remember Gulpilil as the charismatic young aborigine in Nicolas Roeg's somewhat
similar outback odyssey, ``Walkabout'' (1971), a film that opened many eyes to the wonders of modern Australian culture.
To think that landmark film was made when this heartless ``White Australia Policy'' was still in practice is amazing.
Beautifully shot by Christopher Doyle (``In the Mood for Love,'' ``The Quiet American'') and intelligently a
dapted by Australian screenwriter Christine Olsen, ``Rabbit-Proof Fence'' is the first film shot in Australia in 12 years
by Los Angeles-based Australian director Noyce (``Clear and Present Danger,'' ``Patriot Games,'' ``The Bone Collector'').
He should probably not wait another 12 years before making his next one.