General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20266 min read

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed by Phillip Noyce that tells the true story of three Aboriginal girls, Molly Craig, her sister Daisy, and their cousin Gracie, who were forcibly removed from their families in Western Australia in 1931, sent to the Moore River Native Settlement, escaped, and made their way home by following the rabbit-proof fence that crossed the state¹. The film is based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, Molly Craig's daughter¹. Released in Australia in February 2002, it introduced many audiences to the Stolen Generations, the Aboriginal children removed from their families under racist government policies¹.

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Phillip Noyce; screenplay by Christine Olsen, based on Doris Pilkington Garimara's Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence²
Principal cast	Everlyn Sampi (Molly Craig), Tianna Sansbury (Daisy), Laura Monaghan (Gracie), Kenneth Branagh (A.O. Neville), David Gulpilil (Moodoo)³
Key crew	Cinematography by Christopher Doyle; music by Peter Gabriel²
Release	Australia, February 2002; United States, November 29, 2002, distributed by Miramax¹^•⁴
Box office	US gross $6.2 million; over $16 million at the international box office⁵^•⁴
Critical scores	Metascore 80 (generally favorable); 87% on the Tomatometer from 143 reviews⁶^•⁴
Major awards	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film (2002); AFI Best Original Music Score for Peter Gabriel²

Spoilers

The story and its historical basis

The film opens at Jigalong, a depot on the edge of the desert in Western Australia's Pilbara region, where Molly, Daisy, and Gracie live with their Aboriginal mother and grandmother; their white fathers, who had worked on building the fence, left long ago⁷. Because the girls are of mixed descent, they attract the attention of the authorities, and in 1931 they are seized by police and transported to the Moore River Native Settlement, far to the south, to be trained as domestic servants⁴. The three girls escape the camp and walk home across the outback, following the rabbit-proof fence as their guide, while an Aboriginal tracker, Moodoo, and the authorities pursue them⁴.

Sources describe the journey's length differently: the Rotten Tomatoes synopsis and the film's sales agent give 1,500 miles, Screen Australia gives 1,600 kilometers, the Washington Post's account by historian Robert Manne gives 1,000 miles, and IMDb's summary gives 1,200 miles⁴^•²^•⁸^•³. The trek took about three months according to the International Film Festival Rotterdam synopsis⁹.

The removals dramatized in the film rested on the Western Australian Aborigines Act, under which all Aboriginal people were made wards of the state and the Chief Protector of Aborigines became their legal guardian, with the power to remove Aboriginal children from their parents¹⁰. A.O. Neville, portrayed by Kenneth Branagh, was appointed Chief Protector in 1915 and oversaw the establishment of isolated settlements designed to separate Aboriginal children from their families¹⁰. In the film, Neville's aim is stated as eliminating the mixed-descent population by "breeding the Aboriginal out of future generations"¹¹.

The fence itself was real: the most famous rabbit-proof fence was built between 1901 and 1907 and ran 3,256 kilometers north to south across Western Australia, one of the long barriers constructed to contain rabbits, an introduced species that was damaging farms and the environment¹².

Production

Christine Olsen wrote the screenplay and produced the film with Phillip Noyce and John Winter; production companies were Olsen Levy Productions and Rumbalara Films, made with the assistance of the Film Finance Corporation Australia, the Australian Film Commission, and Showtime¹³. Production began on September 18, 2000, in and near Adelaide, on a budget of A$10.5 million, and wrapped in November 2000¹⁴. The three central girls were played by first-time young performers, and critics repeatedly singled out their naturalistic acting, particularly Everlyn Sampi's portrayal of Molly¹⁵. Christopher Doyle, known for his work in Asian cinema, shot the film, and Peter Gabriel's score, an adaptation of Australian Aboriginal music, drew wide praise¹⁵^•¹⁶.

Reception

The film was warmly received by audiences and critics. It grossed over $16 million internationally and won a raft of audience awards, including People's Choice prizes at Denver, Calgary, Leeds, and Edinburgh, the Audience Prize for Best Film at Durban, and the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film⁵^•². Peter Gabriel's score was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score and won the AFI award for Best Original Music Score¹⁷^•².

Critics concentrated their praise on the young performers, Doyle's cinematography of the stark landscape, and Gabriel's score¹⁵. Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote that the final scene contained "an appearance and a revelation of astonishing emotional power," comparing its impact to the last shots of Schindler's List¹⁸. Reservations concerned the handling of the politics rather than the subject: Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times found the film affecting but criticized its uneven political argument and a one-dimensional portrayal of Neville¹⁵. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called it "a heartfelt, though somewhat heavy-footed movie" while crediting its exceptionally strong performances from the three young stars¹⁹.

Historical debate and legacy

The film's release in Australia triggered public dispute over its accuracy. Conservative journalists and historians, including Andrew Bolt and Keith Windschuttle, published articles charging that the film did not accurately reflect the child-removal policies of the time or the circumstances of Molly Craig's story as recounted in Pilkington's book²⁰. Robert Manne, a Melbourne historian and journalist, responded to such questions in the Washington Post, affirming that the girls were seized by police in 1931 in accordance with state policy and walked home through the desert⁸.

The film's broader effect was on public awareness. The National Film and Sound Archive describes it as having introduced many people to the concept of the Stolen Generations, and as a significant landmark in the process of reconciliation between black and white Australians¹^•²⁰. It reached cinemas in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan²⁰. Its place in a shifting national conversation is measurable against two dates: the Bringing Them Home Report was released in 1997, five years before the film, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations came in 2008, six years after it⁷. The film is now widely used in Australian schools as a text for teaching about the Stolen Generations, with study guides produced by ACMI and other education bodies⁷.

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026