Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian epic drama film directed and produced by Phillip Noyce.

It was based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, an Aboriginal Australian author.

It is loosely based on the author's mother Molly Craig, aunt Daisy Kadibil, and cousin Gracie, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families.

The film follows the Aboriginal girls as they walk for nine weeks along 1,600 km (990 mi) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong.

The soundtrack to the film, called Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence, is by English singer and songwriter Peter Gabriel.

More than a thousand miles away in Perth, the official Protector of Western Australian Aborigines, A. O. Neville (called Mr. Devil by them), signs an order to relocate the three girls to the Moore River Native Settlement.

They were sent to the camp at the Moore River Native Settlement, in the south west, about 90 km (55 miles) north of Perth.

They are prohibited from speaking their native language, forced to pray as Christians, and subject to corporal punishment for any infractions of the camp's rules.

During an impending thunderstorm that will help cover their tracks, Molly convinces the girls to escape and return to their home.

In the end, after a nine-week journey through the harsh Australian outback, having walked the 1,600 km (990 mi) route along the fence, the two sisters return home and go into hiding in the desert with their mother and grandmother.

The film is adapted from the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, by Doris Pilkington Garimara, an Aboriginal Australian.

[5][6] Eric Abetz, a government minister, announced the publication of a leaflet criticising the film's portrayal of the treatment of Indigenous Australians, and demanded an apology from the filmmakers.

Director Phillip Noyce suggested that instead the government should apologise to the numerous Indigenous people affected by the removal policy.

[6] Olsen attributed the angry response among some of the public to the fact that it was based in events that were "demonstrably true" and well-documented.

The site's Critics' Consensus states, "Visually beautiful and well-acted, Rabbit-Proof Fence tells a compelling true-life story".