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Rabbit-Proof Fence | Year: 2002 Directed: - Phillip Noyce Actors/Actresses: - Everlyn Sampi - Tianna Sansbury - Kenneth Branagh - Laura Monaghan Watch the absorbing documentary... I won't gush on and on about the excellent movie. I want to bring your attention to the "Making of" documentary. So often these are thrown onto a DVD as a "bonus", but amount to nothing more than a refried re-telling of the film. Here, instead, we are treated to forty-five minutes of how Philip Noyce selected his three young actresses, and all the trials and tribulations that entailed. The scene in the film of the three children being taken from their mothers is a very heart-wrenching scene. But, moving beyond compare is that same scene as caught by the "making of" cameras during and after the shoot. Many of the people behind the cameras were in tears during the actual filming of the scene. At the end of the scene, the character mothers are on the ground crying and Noyce yells, "CUT!". He looks down and you can hear the actresses still crying. He looks up and around the camera with a puzzled look on his face to see if perhaps the actresses did not hear him yell, "CUT". They are all still on the ground sobbing, and he has to go over to console them, saying "Woa, Woa, Woa..." to calm them down and bring them out of it because everyone was so drawn into the event they were reenacting they forgot they were only filming a scene. That was very moving to see how the girls and women were so affected by the filming of that scene. Insights such as this are what make the "Making of" documentary actually worth watching after the film itself. "Rabbit-Proof Fence" a harrowing tale of loss and courage Phillip Noyce's "Rabbit-Proof Fence" is based on the true story of Daisy, Molly and Gracie, three half-caste children in Western Australia in 1931. The Australian government continued enforcing until 1970 a law that allowed mixed race children to be removed forcibly from their parents and sent to boarding schools to "educate" them for a white world. The girls were trained to be servants and domestics. The whole system was similar to the Indian schools in the United States, where First Nations children were sent to be raised as pious, productive, educated young adults, but the system there too frequently failed. The plan was that the half-caste girls would marry whites or other half-castes and have the Aboriginal "bred out of them," as policy director A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh) explains to a local ladies' society. Daisy, Molly and Gracie are sent to the Moore River Native Settlement in Perth, over 2000 kilometres from their home in Jigalong Station. They do not last more than a few days before Molly, the ringleader, plans their escape through brush and desert, finding her way home by following the rabbit-proof fence, the longest in the world, that divides pasture from rabbit-infested bush. Neville and his men, including a skilled Aboriginal tracker, Moodoo (film veteran David Gulpilil) search for weeks in pursuit of the girls, and one is eventually recaptured in a harrowing scene, only steps from safety with the other girls. There is very little in the way of dialogue, and although Noyce's child actors are all unskilled, there are remarkable performances and true moments of fear, desperation, and grief shine through. The girls' mother and grandmother are particularly effective at conveying the mind-shattering grief they must live with knowing that they may never see their girls again. In one touching scene, at separate points on the fence, thousands of kilometres apart, both the mother and the girls tightly grip the fence, lightly shaking it, as if they could feel the resulting vibrations and sense the others' presence there. The cinematography shows off the dry palette of the desert, the spectacular desert sunsets, the shimmering wave of heat that covers the landscape. This film reminded me in some ways of the 1971 Australian film "Walkabout," which starred Gulpilil as an Aboriginal teenager, and follows two white children that are stranded in the outback with only Gulpilil as a guide. The "Rabbit-Proof Fence" score by Peter Gabriel is low-key and appropriately tension-filled, meditative and mysterious at key moments, with wisps of Aboriginal chant and song woven into a lush synth background, and reminded me of the excellent soundtrack to Australian sci-fi series "Ocean Girl" by Garry McDonald and Laurie Stone. The narration at the beginning and end of the movie was the most powerful for me: the real-life Molly and Daisy, now old women in bright clothes that are startlingly out of place against the backdrop of the outback they slowly walk through, tell how the story ended. And that was the saddest truth of all. The included documentary "Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence" shows Noyce flying to remote outback communities looking for Aboriginal child actors, auditioning thousands of hopefuls before settling on the final three, Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan, as well as the emotional journey for the temperamental star and the harrowing experience of filming the girls' abduction at the hands of a white officer. Pretty much the whole cast and crew was in tears and shaken afterwards, forced to relive the crucial moment that defined the "Stolen Generations:" the theft from their mothers' arms, some never to be seen or heard from again. An excellent film that treats a little-known subject outside of Australia (and fairly unspoken within), with the fresh-faced innocence of children who beat the odds and found their way home across 2000 km of largely uninhabited, hostile terrain to the waiting arms of their family. absolutely stunning One word: Incredible. I don't remember this movie getting much press when it was released, but it should have. This is a top 10 movie for 2002 in my eyes. Rabbit-Proof Fence was directed by Philip Noyce (The Quiet American) and is set in 1930's Australia. Australia had a policy regarding the Aborignal natives. A child born of an aboriginal parent and white parent was known as being half-caste. The government would not allow these children to be raised in their aboriginal families and they were taken away. Rabbit-Proof Fence follows three girls who were taken from their village and relocated 1200 miles away. Before I forget to mention it, this is a true story and is based on a book written by the daughters of one of these girls. The film follows Molly, Daisy, and Gracie: three children whose ages range from 8-14. They are ripped from the arms of their mothers (literally) and taken to the reform school more than a thousand miles away (as far away as New York is from California). The school tries to strip them of their culture. They are introduced to Christianity (as a Christian I feel the religion is true and is a good thing, but it should be a choice not forced upon somebody), can only speak English and they are introduced to an entirely new lifestyle. This is inter-cut with the director of this program giving a lecture on why the half-caste children are a real threat and why they should be taken care of and eventually have the black bred out of them. Kenneth Branagh plays this man, and while he is the villain, he honestly believes that he is doing right and that he is doing the right thing by the half-caste children. By no means is he a sympathetic character, but we see that he is misguided and mistaken instead of evil. He truly believes that the school is the best place for the children. We also see a scene of a runaway being brought back in. No runaway had ever escaped for long. Molly leads Gracie and Daisy to escape. Most of the movie is of the trek back to their home and evading the tracker (extremely skilled). They are aided at times by white and black citizens and aboriginals, some knowing exactly where these children came from. It is an incredible journey and if it wasn't a true story I'm not sure I would have believed it was possible. At the very end of the film we see a shot of Molly and Gracie as old women. They are walking together. That was a beautiful shot and even knowing that this was true, that shot makes it hit home. These are the women that escaped as children. The postscript on the screen adds to the heartbreak of the movie. I don't think I can speak enough as to how good of a movie Rabbit-Proof Fence is. It is one of the best of the year and is a movie that deserves to be seen. The more people that see this movie, it will be more likely that films like this will be made. Buy Rabbit Proof Fence at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Rabbit Proof Fence Search with the Priority Search Engine on Rabbit Proof Fence This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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