The movie Rabbit Proof Fence was released in 2002, directed by Phillip Noyce. It is about the treatment of Aborigines and their children in Australia. This movie depicts the policies which the government introduced in 1970. The plot revolves around the issue of slavery at the time when this practice no longer existed in the democracy in West. This is a very realistic story based on true facts about racism.
The film succeed in telling the story because it describes the hardships of the children of Aborigines who used to be separated from their families in order to be trained to become workers in a factory or as servants in domestic households. The treatment of the subjects seems to be fair because it deals with the story of discrimination because the fathers of those children were white people employed as workers who had occasional sex with women who were Aborigines and then abandoned them. There is a question about the future of such children who are of mixed race and it is not clear why they were forced to leave their mothers.
The film was insightful and informative because it opened many questions that could explain such cruelty. Firstly, white people did not want to let children who are partly white stay with Aborigines. Secondly, they feared that the white genes would prevail and that Aborigines could ask for greater rights and finally, white people decided that it was too dangerous to let the Aborigines become white as well. However, the children of mixed race were meant for physical labor exclusively.
This topic is still important because the government in Australia never issued and official apology for this practice and bad treatment of Aborigines. The story follows the lives of three girls, Molly, Daisy and Gracie who are 14, 8 and 10 years old. These girls were two sisters and a cousin and it is a true story which was written by Molly’s daughter. The film depicts the cruelty with which the girls were treated. They are forbidden to use their own language and the place where they are put is lonely and hostile. The overall atmosphere makes them disgusted and they try to escape. It is a powerful scene when they are caught after managing to escape and put in separate confinements. However, when they escape one more time it is a more successful attempt.
The title of the film is related to the fence that was built to protect the land from rabbits and their harm. The girls follow the path which leads them along that fence and this signifies that they are treated as rabbits as well because the government decides about their future and they are deprived of having normal lives.
White people go after the girls, but there are people who help them on their way which provokes emotions because even white people are ready to help. This shows that common people are people with feelings and that politics does not reflect public opinion.
There is much cruelness in this film and it relates to my life in a way that I understand how people use ideologies in order to execute their personal plans which are beneficial only to themselves. It made me think about life in general and how white people took away the land from the Aborigines without their consent. It was cruel to impose themselves as the superior race only because the Aborigines were indigenous benevolent people. The films did not make me change a prior opinion, but it made me become more aware of the value of indigenous people and the fact that they still have rights which are suppressed. It is unbelievable for me that the world is still a savage place in spite of the civilizational progress.
Works Cited
Noyce, Phillip, dir. Rabbit-Proof Fence. Miramax, 2002. Film.
