***/****
starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, David Gulpilil
screenplay by Christine Olsen, based on the book by Doris Pilkington
directed by Phillip Noyce
by Bill Chambers As much as I don't mind Phillip Noyce's Jack Ryan films, they failed to live up to the artistic promise held by Dead Calm, the claustrophobic Aussie thriller that brought both Noyce and star Nicole Kidman to the attention of U.S. audiences. After a decade or so of marginal filmmaking in Hollywood (and in the Hollywood style), Noyce has returned to his homeland–and reminds us that he can be a pretty effective filmmaker–with Rabbit-Proof Fence, a movie that will grab your attention immediately with Peter Gabriel's world-beat score. The picture covers the early part of a dark, sick, and too-long period in Australia's history, when the "half-caste" children of Aborigines were taken from their parents and placed in Catholic reformation camps in an attempt to discourage the mixing of white settlers with indigenous peoples and, ultimately, to phase out the non-pure breeds of either race. Three industrious little girls (Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan) escape one such institution, finding their way back to their mothers by following along the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the countryside–a 1200-mile journey they're committed to making on foot. Noyce is suddenly overreliant on the Dutch angle, but he maintains visual interest in the repetitious outback setting through some inspired compositions, and the human drama is innately compelling. In the tradition of early works by Peter Weir and Nicholas Roeg, Rabbit-Proof Fence no doubt lacks subtlety, probably as a by-product of Noyce's prolonged exposure to American cinema. It gets us politically riled-up, though, and that matters. Featuring a charismatic performance by "Crocodile" Dundee's David Gulpilil as a tracker. PROGRAM: SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
