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Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is based on a true story concerning the author's mother, as well as two other mixed-race Aboriginal girls, who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, to return to their Aboriginal families, after having been placed there in 1931. The film follows the girls as they trek/walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being tracked by a white authority figure and an Aboriginal tracker.[1]
The soundtrack to the film, called Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence, is by Peter Gabriel. British producer Jeremy Thomas, who has a long connection with Australia, executive-produced the film, selling it internationally through his sales arm, Hanway Films.
Plot
Set in Western Australia during the 1930s, the film begins in the remote town of Jigalong where three children, sisters Molly Craig (Everlyn Sampi), 14, and Daisy Kampill (Tianna Sansbury), 8, live with their mother and grandmother, and their cousin Gracie Fields (Laura Monaghan), 10. The town lies along the northern part of Australia's rabbit-proof fence, which runs for several thousand miles.
Thousands of miles away, the "protector" of Western Australian Aborigines, A. O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), signs an order to relocate the three girls to his re-education camp. The children are referred to by Neville as "half-castes", having one white and one black parent. Neville's reasoning is that the Aboriginal peoples of Australia are a danger to themselves and must be bred out of existence. The children are forcibly taken from Jigalong and taken to the camp at Moore River to the south. Half-castes that are of a certain age live at the camps and are taught to become servants for the whites living in Australia.
Map of the rabbit-proof fence showing the trip from Moore River to Jigalong.
Molly, Gracie, and Daisy decide to walk back home to Jigalong and escape the camp. An Aboriginal tracker, Moodoo (David Gulpilil), is called in to find them. However, the girls are well versed in disguising their tracks. They evade Moodoo several times, receiving aid from strangers in the harsh Australian country they travel. They eventually find the rabbit-proof fence, knowing that they can follow it north to Jigalong. Neville soon figures out their strategy and sends Moodoo and a local constable, Riggs, after them. Though he is an experienced tracker, Moodoo is unable to find them.
Neville spreads word that Gracie's mother is waiting for her in the town of Wiluna and it finds its way to a man who "helps" the girls: He tells Gracie about her mother and that they can get to Wiluna by train, causing her to break off from the group and attempt to catch a train to Wiluna. Molly and Daisy soon walk after her, finding her at a train station. They are not reunited, however, as Riggs appears and Gracie is re-captured. Knowing they are helpless to aid her, Molly and Daisy continue on.
After several more weeks of following the fence, eluding their trackers and trekking through a vast expanse of open desert, the two sisters arrive close to Jigalong, it being implied that their mother and grandmother guided them there through ritual chanting. Though Riggs is waiting there, the town's women have been chanting heavily in the brush, a ritual that Riggs seems frightened of. As he moves through the brush looking for the girls, he encounters Molly's and Daisy's mother and grandmother with their mother brandishing a sharpened stick. Riggs is frightened away and Molly and Daisy find their family.
The epilogue of the film shows recent footage of Molly and Daisy. Molly explains that had Gracie died by then and that she had never got back to Jigalong. Molly also states that she had her own two daughters who were taken from her and how she successfully escaped with one, Annabelle, in much the same manner as in her childhood; she walked the length of the fence back home. But Annabelle, when she was 3 years old, was taken away, much like her mother. Molly never saw her again. In closing, Molly says that she and Daisy "...Will never go back to Moore River. Never."
Production
The film is adapted from the novel, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, the second book of her trilogy documenting her family's stories.[2]
Reception
The film stirred debate over the historical accuracy of the claims of the Stolen Generation. Some, like Andrew Bolt,[3][4] criticised the portrayal of Neville in the film, arguing that he was inaccurately represented as paternalistic and racist.[3] Bolt questioned the artistic portrayal in the film of the girls as prisoners in prison garb. He claimed that, in fact, they had been dressed in civilian clothes and tracked by concerned adults fearful for their welfare.[3] He claimed that when Molly Craig, whose journey was being told, saw the film, she stated that it was "not my story". However, she clarified that statement by saying her story still continued into her adult life and was not nicely resolved as the movie's ending made it appear.[5]
Awards and nominations
- 2001 - Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.[6]: Film Script — the Pacific Film and Television Commission Award (Christine Olsen)[7]
- 2002 - Australian Film Institute Awards[8]
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- Best Film (Phillip Noyce, Christine Olsen, John Winter)
- Best Original Music Score (Peter Gabriel)
- Best Sound (Bronwyn Murphy, Craig Carter, Ricky Edwards, John Penders)
- 2002 - Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards[9]
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- Best Director (Phillip Noyce)
- Best Screenplay — Adapted (Christine Olsen)
- 2002 - Inside Film Awards[10]
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- 2002 - New South Wales Premier's History Awards[11]: shortlisted for the The Premier's Young People's History Prize (Christine Olsen and Phillip Noyce)
- 2002 (USA) - Aspen Filmfest[12]: Audience Award, Audience Favourite Feature[13] (Phillip Noyce)
- 2002 (Switzerland) - Castellinaria International Festival of Young Cinema,[14]
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- 2002 (USA) - The 2002 Starz Encore Denver International Film Festival,[15]: People's Choice Award: Best Feature-Length Fiction Film (Phillip Noyce)
- 2002 (South Africa) - Durban International Film Festival[16]: Audience Award (Phillip Noyce)
- 2002 (UK) - Edinburgh International Film Festival[17]: Audience Award (Phillip Noyce)
- 2002 (UK) - Leeds International Film Festival[18]: Audience Award (Phillip Noyce)
- 2002 (USA) - National Board of Review Awards 2002[19]
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- 2002 (USA) - San Francisco Film Critics Circle[20]
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- 2002 (Spain) - Valladolid International Film Festival[21]: Audience Award: Feature Film (Phillip Noyce)
- 2003 (UK) - London Critics Circle Film Awards (ALFS)[22]: Director of the Year (Phillip Noyce, also for The Quiet American (2002))
- 2003 (Brazil) - São Paulo International Film Festival[23]: Audience Award: Best Foreign Film (Phillip Noyce)
Nominations
- 2002 (Australia) - Australian Film Institute Nominations[24]
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- 2002 (Australia) - Film Critics Circle of Australia Nominations[9] Australia
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- 2002 (Poland) - Camerimage - 2002 International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography[25]: Golden Frog (Christopher Doyle)
- 2002 (USA) - Golden Trailer Award Nominations[26]: Golden Trailer: Best Independent
- 2003 (USA) - Golden Globe Nominations[27]: Golden Globe: Best Original Score — Motion Picture (Peter Gabriel)
- 2003 (USA) - Motion Picture Sound Editors Nomination[28]: Golden Reel Award: Best Sound Editing in Foreign Features (Juhn Penders, Craig Carter, Steve Burgess, Ricky Edwards, Andrew Plain)
- 2003 (USA) - Political Film Society Awards[29]
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- 2003 (USA) - Young Artist Awards[30]
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- Best Performance in a Feature Film — Supporting Young Actress (Everlyn Sampi)
- Best Performance in a Feature Film — Young Actress Age Ten or Under (Tianna Sansbury)
References
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