Starring: Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, David Gulpilil, Kenneth Branagh
Director: Phillip Noyce
Category: I
Phillip Noyce spent the 1990s churning out American thrillers such as Clear And Present Danger (1994) and Patriot Games (1992). But with Rabbit-Proof Fence he makes a bold return to the thoughtful dramas that ignited his career in 1970s Australia.
The story is based on fact, and recounts the ordeal faced by three young Aboriginal girls in the 1930s, who - under government orders - are removed from their families and taken to an internment camp, where they are to be assimilated into white-Australian society. The government has only in recent years admitted to this shocking policy.
The girls escape from the camp and face a trip home of more than 2,400km. And it is the rabbit-proof fence, built to stop the animal-borne plague that threatened farms at the time, that guides them towards home. The young actresses playing the girls do so with impressive strength and poise. The sheer terror they portrayed on being torn from their families' arms is harrowing.