A heart-breaking movie

In the mid 1930´s the Australian continent wants to breed out the aboriginal race and the man for the job is Mr. Neville, who is prepared to use any inhuman method to achieve his goal. He firmly believes in separating the half caste children from their aboriginal parents and shifting them to the Moore River Native Settlement .This Settlement is run by nuns in a strictly religious way in order to give these children also a good chance to live as the "better" white Australians.
Molly, Gracie and Daisy are 3 such children who are torn away from their mothers and sent forcibly to the Settlement 1200 miles away. Molly misses her mother terribly and is determined to return to her village. The story of her escape and the long arduous journey home is what the film is all about.

The film starts straight away, without much dilly dallying. Mr. Neville seems to be perfectly suited for the role. As for Daisy one longs to take her in his arms and wish away her sorrows. Sometimes I could not quite much decipher the distant expressions on Molly´s face. What surprised me was Molly's rare maturity for a 14 year old girl and the way she used really ingenious tricks to outwit her chasers for e.g. the trick wearing socks over her shoes to hide her tracks.
It´s only towards the end that the girls are shown suffering from the rigorous of their journey, making the trek on foot through 1000 miles look relatively easy, as they never get lost nor do they suffer from hunger or thirst.
Despite the minor faults one should not forget that the whole story actually did happen and the story was written by none other than Molly´s daughter. In keeping the storyline simple and straightforward, the director Phillip Noyce avoids making clichés or statements as to who´s right or wrong, but leaves it to the viewer to judge Mr. Neville, or rather the Australian Government´s policy at that period and still pays a wonderful homage to the Stolen Generation. Peter Gabriel´s music also did a marvellous job, underlining the feelings of Molly and her relatives, which sometimes the actors failed to do. In conclusion the movie is absolutely worth watching in spite of some logical mistakes. Contrarywise those mistakes make the picture more likeable, because as in real life nothing is perfect! So grab your copy now and do not forget to buy as well a packet full of tissues!