| RABBIT-PROOF FENCE |
| Starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, David Gulpilil, Kenneth Branagh Directed by Phillip Noyce **** out of **** Out of Australia comes an astonishing surprise in the form of Rabbit-Proof Fence, an intimate story on epic scale. Having viewed the film and still shuddering inside from the experience, I wondered how the Academy couldn�t recognize this amazing film�s merit. Ah, yes, I answered myself, but that�s the Academy. They didn�t acknowledge Requiem for a Dream and Memento got only a lifted eyebrow. Yet the film has all the elements a great picture can have: human drama, intense emotional impact, and visual depth. That�s not a complaint but an observation. By the end of the film�s journey, the viewer will have completed a journey him- or herself. There is nothing wrong with this film, except that it could�ve been longer. Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on a remarkable true story: in 1931, three young girls (the oldest 14, the youngest about six) flee from the home they�ve been placed in to return to their families. How do they intend to get there? Walk 1500 miles across barren Australian earth in a scorching sun. As remarkable is the history behind the tale, an Aussie law � the Aborigine Act � that empowered A.O. Neville as the guardian of children of mixed blood, mostly referred to as �half-caste�. Children born of white fathers and black mothers were thus removed from their familial setting and taken far away to a school where they�d be civilized, Westernized. In that school the native tongue was scorned, and English was the only admissible language. The three protagonists are Molly (Everlyn Sampi), young Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and Gracie (Laura Monaghan) who run away from the institution when the opportunity presents itself. The school dispatches a tracker, Moodoo (David Gulpilil) to find the girls and bring them back. Neville (Kenneth Branagh) presides over the case personally. He wants it kept out of the papers; his reputation is at stake and he will bear any financial cost to capture the runaways. Three young girls. 1500 miles on foot. Pursued by the law. This film asks so little and gives so much, and after the film ends it keeps on giving. The ending is what can naively be termed a �happy� one, yet great tragedy underscores it. Noyce never makes his film a feel good-ride; if there is an emotional payoff, it is completely justified. And when the truth threatens to darken the rosy image, he does not hesitate to bare it to us. Through everything, the film remains very realistic. Rabbit-Proof Fence shows the threat the Aborigines held for the Australians � the displacement of children continued until the early seventies. In era-terms, that�s yesterday. We see the white policeman scared of a woman with a stick, the instant eradication of identity the children suffer in the �enlightened, civilized� school. We see how nature favours those that are good to her (those interested in a deeper understanding of the film�s nature-motifs are recommended to consult the literature of Levy-Bruhl [spelling uncertain] on the �bush soul�). All in all (especially in the last two minutes of the film) we come under the clear impression of mankind�s incredible intolerance and prejudice toward otherness. The film brings us under the impression of a more subtle evil that is every bit as destructive as manifest warfare. In either case, the family loses. The three girls are completely natural. David Gulpilil says very little but his eyes and face speak volumes. When Neville tells Moodoo that he can�t retire just yet, the native doesn�t talk back but we know what he�s thinking. Also, as he tracks the children, it becomes evident that he yearns for their freedom to be final - maybe so that he too can feel it one day. Branagh�s Neville (to whom the Aborigines refer to as Devil) is a gentleman Hitler intent on destroying a culture with the stroke of a pen. Rabbit-Proof Fence is the most important film to come from Australia since the heyday of Peter Weir. That an action director like Noyce could accomplish such a feat is in itself worthy of mention. To miss this film is an injustice to your spirit. |
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