Review of Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) by Aliya D — 21 May 2008

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.

There is very little in the way of dialogue, and although Phillip Noyce's child actors are all unskilled, there are remarkable performances and true moments of fear, desperation, and grief shine through.

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.

The 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. 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.