Rabbit-Proof Fence 4K 2002

When I watched ‘Australia’, I kept thinking that I had already seen a film about Australia's ‘lost generation’ somewhere. I thought about it for a long time and finally remembered. About seven years ago, I happened to see the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence. There was an Australian film festival in town at the time, and it seemed like that's where this film was brought from and purchased.

I watched the film in one sitting. The main characters are three mixed-race girls who were taken from their mothers and forcibly taken to a reservation to be raised in the English style by white missionaries. The reservation is more like a prison camp. There are fences everywhere. The regime is strict. The children, accustomed to freedom, feel stifled and unhappy there. They run away and, throughout the film, with incredible willpower, try to get home, crossing almost half the continent through dangerous deserts. Not everyone succeeds. They are pursued relentlessly.

The aborigines of Australia were considered primitive and underdeveloped. Their knowledge was considered primitive and worthless. They were treated almost like cattle. It was believed that children taken from their mothers would quickly forget them and absorb the culture of white people. This was the case with those who were very young.

And since there were quite a few mixed-race children among the Aborigines, when they were all taken away, a void was created. Parents had no one to pass on the stories of their ancestors and knowledge of their culture to. As a result, by the early 1970s, Aboriginal culture had almost disappeared completely under the influence of such crude interference. Very few carriers remained unaffected by English influence.

Then the government came to its senses. The law was repealed.

A film was made based on real events. It is based on the stories of girls who managed to return to their parents despite all these obstacles. I would call it a social film. Although there is also plenty of drama and historical genre here.