Rabbit-Proof Fence

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a true story of human spirit and the overcoming of adversity. The film tells the story of three young Aboriginal girls who are torn from their homes because they are of mixed decent, and taken to a camp where they are to be trained to integrate into proper society, in particular as servants, with the intention that white blood will scour the aboriginal blood from their line in a few generations as they reproduce with whites.

The girls, plenty unhappy with the camp and wanting to go home, use the cover of rain to escape the camp and evade a tracker used by the camp to fetch strays. Their journey north, as they follow the rabbit-proof fence that runs the length of Australia is the focus of the movie.

This movie is very matter-of-fact in its portrayal of racism. It does not paint a picture of the whites as bullying monsters, gaining satisfaction from the subjugation of the Aborigines, but instead shows them as arrogant yet well-meaning and naive in their assumptions, intending to save these people from themselves, and show them a better way. The subjects of this improvement are not known as the lost generation.

Overall, this film was quite good. It evoked a variety of emotions, opened my eyes to some history I likely slept through in class, and told its story in an effective and interesting manner.