Review of Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) by Rowena E — 22 Feb 2008

An incredible film that provokes anger for how inhumanely the Australian government treated the aboriginal people for more than 60 years. Half-caste aboriginal children (those with white fathers) were shipped to settlements to be trained as laborers for white society.

Half-castes were not allowed to marry full aborigines with the hope that through breeding light-skinned half-castes that their blackness would eventually be bred out of them. This film takes on renewed relevance because of Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd's decision last week to apologize to the Stolen Generation.

But this is also an exciting tale of two young sisters and their cousin's 1,500-mile trek back to their moms. Credit Phillip Noyce for casting actual aborigines for the roles. Credit also Kenneth Branagh for a suitable restrained performance.

His genetic ideas would fit well in Nazi Germany, but Branagh portrays the area's Chief Protector not as a racist monster, but a misguided bureaucrat who believes he is acting in the best interest of the aborigine and white race.