Classic Film Friday: Rabbit Proof Fence

This movie isn’t a classic yet, but after watching it, I’m confident that it will be. As citizens of the United States we often tend to believe that we invented oppression. Rabbit Proof Fence proves that subjugation can crop up anywhere, even in the desolate Australian Outback.

The film is a dramatic retelling of a true story about 3 “half-caste” aborigine girls in 1930’s Australia. In that time, aborigines were considered wards of the state. And if you believe the premise of the movie (it is the subject of controversy) the government wanted to eradicate the cultural divide between white settlers and aborigines via assimilation …or essentially to get rid of aborigines altogether.

Since he girls were of mixed race, or “half-caste”, they were under the authority of the government. The state extricated the girls from their mother’s custody and delivered them to an orphanage some 1200 miles away so that they may be assimilated into the white culture.

Molly, the oldest girl, decides to run away and bring her younger sister and cousin with her. The rest of the movie is spent portraying the agonizing and seemingly hopeless journey they made trying to find their way home.

This is one of those movies that lingers in your mind for days after seeing it. There is irony in the fence, an inherently non-native apparition of the landscape, and how the girls use it as a navigation tool that would have otherwise made the trip impossible. Rabbit Proof Fence is a (near classic) tale of heroism that rises above the barbarous mentality of the past. Through great tragedy and despair comes a story of empowerment. If you like Rabbit Proof Fence, you should also enjoy Whale Rider, Water, and/or Children of Heaven.