Barbed wire

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianno Sansbury, Laura Monaghan,…

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianno Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, Kenneth Branagh

Directed by Phillip Noyce

“Rabbit-Proof Fence” opened to limited release Nov. 29. One week later, Senator Trent Lott very publicly stuck his foot in his mouth at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond. These two events are linked not only in the timely sense, but also by their subject matter.

The film, by Australian-born director Phillip Noyce, is set in Australia in 1931 where then (and until 1970) the government legally could remove “half-caste” children – children who had one parent who was aboriginal and one who was white – from their families and displace them into camps to be trained as servants and laborers.

The story follows three little girls who have been so displaced, sisters Molly (Everlyn Sampi) and Daisy (Tianno Sansbury) and their cousin Gracie (Laura Monaghan), who escape from one of these camps and attempt the 1,500-mile journey back to their home. Their only guide is the titular fence, erected by the Australian government to protect crops from rabbits and other animals.

The movie is about a past that the Australian government would likely just as soon forget and really, that was the nature of Senator Lott’s comments as well. He said nothing explicitly about race or segregation, but his public pride that his state voted for Thurmond in 1948 reopened an old wound. Had Thurmond won the presidency that year, civil rights would have been dealt an incalculable blow, and it was Lott’s insensitivity to, or ignorance of this fact that got him into trouble.

However inadvertently, he did the world a service by bringing back to American headlines the ongoing debate about race and history. “Rabbit-Proof Fence” will certainly benefit from and also meaningfully contribute to this debate, and audiences are lucky to be able to see it in this context.

Artistically, the film is marked by an especially inventive use of the desolate and barren Australian Outback to add real power to certain moments. Scenes at the end shot in silhouette against a brilliant blue sky are truly breathtaking.

The acting also deserves mention. Kenneth Branagh does a capable job with a difficult character, Mr. Neville, “protector of the aborigines,” a man who, if not bad, is certainly wrong. But the three young protagonists, none of whom are actors, steal the show. Noyce is to be commended for coaxing convincing performances from them.

The film is obviously made by a Westerner, and it lingers unnecessarily on details such as the national scandal caused by the girls’ escape at the expense of exploring the customs and lifestyles of the aboriginal people who populate its world.

But this is a story that needed to be told and its timing could not be better. This is the first of two films by Noyce for the 2002 season, along with “The Quiet American,” a film about the Vietnam War. It is wonderful to see a director who made his reputation with thrillers like “Clear and Present Danger” turning his talents to more worthy projects.