a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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“If only these people understood what we’re trying to do for them.”
That is what A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), an officer of the Australian government, mutters in frustration as those who have been placed in his custody show a lack of cooperation. In the film Rabbit-Proof Fence, Neville is constantly frustrated to find that a deeply rooted culture will not just roll over and let him and his associates take away their history, their customs, their language, their beliefs, and their identities.
I am sure his words have been spoken by many over the course of history, as one culture has used force to try and exert influence over another. I am sure it has gone through the minds of well-intentioned generals, religious leaders, kings, presidents, even school teachers and … yes… missionaries.
Many of them have, indeed, had good intentions, and brought with them things that their target-cultures truly needed. But they have also frequently lacked perspective. As a result, their good intentions have led to brutality and deep wounds that have turned the very cultures they might have helped into enemies with deep grudges. Moreover, they have lost the opportunity to learn what those cultures might have offered them in return. After all, no culture is without its particular wisdom.
In this cast, Neville’s indignance serves onlty to reveal his blindness, arrogance, and lack of compassion. Neville is the primary representative of a massive cultural endeavor in this extraordinary new film by director Phillip Noyce. Rabbit-Proof Fence is our first big screen tale about the Western European attack on the Aboriginal culture. It portrays in painful displays just how children were snatched away from their families, their communities, and their cultures in a concerted effort to Christian-ize them and, worse, to “breed out” the genes of their Aboriginal heritage. The main targets were “half-castes”, the sons and daughters of whites and Aborigines.
This long-running effort of political and religious conspiracy was not corrective action taken against criminals, but the rape of a whole culture for generations. The missing came to be known as “the Stolen Generations”, and until the 1970s, it continued. Instead of respecting the complex and ancient culture of the Aborigines, learning about the people and trying to guide them into a new century, the Australian government chose to force them into a new life, as if the threat of punishment could drive the very color from their skin.
Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the true story about three Aboriginal girls who were taken from their mothers and carried off for a Catholic education and a cultural transplant. Led by a stubborn and brave adolescent named Molly, they escaped this well-intentioned white oppression and set out on a harrowing 1,500 mile journey towards home, following the line of a fence that traversed the entire region. The fence had been constructed in hopes that the wild animals of the Australian wilderness would not cross over into more civilized territories. It is a perfect symbol of the futility of trying to divide lives into neat, clean classifications. It’s a deeply flawed but ambitious construction.
Like Noyce’s other 2002 film – The Quiet American — Rabbit-Proof Fence will remain a significant cinematic contribution to discussions of foreign policy, ethics, national identity, and human rights. Christopher Doyle’s cinematography captures so much heat and dust, audiences are likely to use those free soda refill coupons. Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack blends Aboriginal styles with his own distinct atmospheric sound, conjuring ghostly voices at the edges of awe-inspiring panoramic views of desert and wilderness.
An impressive cast of unknowns deserves much of the credit for their realistic portrayals and quiet emotional journeys. Branagh is the film’s only familiar face, and his performance is sufficient, but not terribly impressive. Branagh is given very little to do. He has two expressions here: a disapproving scowl and a look of grim discouragement. The script might have done more to let us into the minds and agendas of the government and religious forces driving these cultural ambushes.
The three girls at the center of this story—Molly, Gracie, and their cousin Daisy—are played with quiet intensity by Everlyn Sampi, Laura Monaghan, and Tianna Sansbury. Sampi is especially good: her large eyes burn with anger, hope, and conviction.
Scenes of the Aborigine culture are authentic, fascinating, and thus heartbreaking when we see the trucks roar up and the men dragging children from their mothers’ grasp. The grievous truth of what was indeed done to these people, rather than for them, hits viewers hard in the film’s unforgettable conclusion, when viewers are introduced to the survivors of this true-life tale.
It should give us pause when we find ourselves aiming to influence or teach someone we consider ignorant or misguided. We may indeed be able to bring them to a greater truth. But success does not come through force, at least not without grievous cost. And more often than not, we do not have so much more to offer them than they have to offer us, and thus cultures — and individuals as well — will only merge peacefully when they come together in respect, openness, trust, and compassion.