The fact that a supposedly enlightened, freely elected government would, as late as 1971, wrest children from their homes solely because of their race is startling enough.

The fact that three of those children - "half-caste" Aboriginal girls, 8, 10 and 14 years old, in 1931 Australia - escaped the state-run school where they'd been sent to train as domestics, then trekked 1,500 miles back to their families, is doubly incredible.

Rabbit-Proof Fence - a compelling true tale starring a remarkable trio of young actresses - marks director Phillip Noyce's return to his homeland after 15 years in Hollywood. (The Tom Clancy pics Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games are his doing.) It's a beautiful, taut drama that examines both the strengths (courage, determination, family) and weaknesses (bigotry, self-righteousness) of humankind.

Forcibly removed by the government because they are the product of white fathers and Aborigine mothers, sisters Molly (Everlyn Sampi) and Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and their cousin, Gracie (Laura Monaghan), are taken to a "native settlement" camp.

The separation policy, designed to breed out the Aboriginal race gradually by ensuring that children of mixed marriages did not marry full-blooded Aborigines, was overseen in Perth by A. O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), whose title was Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia. In effect, he served as legal guardian over the entire Aboriginal community, a community he was bent on wiping out.

It's to Noyce and Branagh's credit that the actor's portrayal never descends into cartoon villainy. A product of British colonialism, the patrician bureaucrat truly believed he was doing right by "assimilating" these children - as servants - into white society.

It's epic stuff, how the girls outsmarted and outlasted police search parties as they made their way across daunting terrain to the frontier depot of Jigalong, whence they came. Using the 1,500-mile barrier of the film's title as their guidepost, the children braved the elements and became one with them, drawing on the Aborigines' innate connection to their land to survive.

As word of their great quest reached newspapers and radio, the girls were fed and clothed by farmers and travelers, acting out of kindness, but also out of their own disdain for government rules and regulations.

Sampi, who plays Molly, the oldest of the trio, is especially good, showing defiance, fear, resourcefulness and pride with equal conviction. Photographing the diminutive escapees against the vast backdrop of Western Australia, Noyce captures both the rugged grandeur of the land and the daring of the children crossing it.