The film, Rabbit-Proof Fence deals with three aboriginal girls who escape from a white training school for servants and try to reach their families in the Australian Outback. (see Phantom Tollbooth movie archives) Peter Gabriel has done a perceptive job of using native instruments and orchestra to show the 1500-mile journey the girls must make. They use the rabbit-proof fence to find their town of Jigalong and home. As the audience views the film, the question presents itself: is this fence built to keep rabbits out or people in?
Gabriel arranges the tracks on this CD to follow the story; so, track one is "Jigalong," where the film opens. This is haunting and mysterious music with native instruments against a string orchestra and percussion background. Then, we proceed through "Stealing the Children" to "Unlocking the Door" where the girls plot escape from their training school. This selection uses a Shankar, which is a double violin.
"The Tracker" is on their trail, and the mode of the music is prowling and mysterious. "Running to the Rain," means escape again with no footprints. There is a variety of Outback sounds here, plus the addition of clap sticks. "Go Away, Mr. Evans" (played by Kenneth Branagh) is one of the longest pieces on the CD. There is an ominous, hunted mood here that has a Middle Eastern flair to it. Native instruments are used to imitate the girls walking and hiding from the man who would return them to servitude. On the other hand is the ethereal "Crossing the Salt Pan", with endless vistas of waterless plains. It is truly the land of the lost.
Another longer composition is "The Return," where the walkers are closing in on familiar territory. Against a background of orchestra strings, are softer drums that are nostalgic and yearn for home. "NganKarrparni" uses native chant against a humming sound that segues into native rhythms with drums. The walkers are close enough to smell home.
The last two compositions, "The Rabbit-Proof Fence" and "Cloudless," bring to mind an endless wall that stretches beyond the horizon in either direction. Meant to keep out rabbits that decimate crops, this fence/wall also keeps in people who used to roam free. "Cloudless" ends triumphant, as the human will to survive dominates.
Peter Gabriel uses an array of Australian native instruments and comes up with a haunting soundtrack. There is a longing here to be free and at the same time, a pressure to conform to a new society. Who will win in the end?
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