I did notice that Aborigine culture is wholly identified with women in the movie. Molly, Gracie and Daisy live with Molly's mother and Grandmother - men are absent from their lives. Men are identified with white culture, or with those who enforce white culture - even Moodoo, an Aborigine tracker who tries to capture the girls (David Gulpilil puts in a fine performance as a man who is caught between two cultures). This is a standard split among writers and filmmakers who want to emphasis a drastic culture-clash. Neville and his ilk represent a white, patriarchal order, and the Molly and her family represent an indigenous, matricentric community. I'm sure this is a deliberate ploy by Noyce to sharpen the divide between the two cultural viewpoints, and to highlight the difficulty of women breaking with male order. In case you think I'm exaggerating, I can point to several key scenes throughout the film in which it is explicit. Women, thankfully, are not shown as passive and unable to deal with the brute power of the law. In fact they are portrayed as tenacious, stubborn, and ultimately frightening to the male mind. They do not resist in what is considered standard male ways - violence - but through their strength and determination. This is most obvious towards the end of the movie in which the girls are nearly home and the Aborigine women are gathered together singing; "women's business" as one man puts it. One of the police officers attempts to investigate, but cannot face down two women - one a grandmother - who are implacable in their determination that he shall not intrude.

The movie opens with Molly's narration and assertion that this story is "true", and ends with her summarising events that occur after the film ends. I realised they could have made another movie out of Molly's life. After she returned to the outback she was married and had two children. Later on she was abducted and brought back to government care with her two children. She then escaped again, and walked the 1,200 miles, with her two children, back to her home of Jigalong. However, one of her children was later stolen from her and she never saw her again. The film finally shows us the real Molly and Daisy, still alive and living their own lives.

This is the best kind of filmmaking. It doesn't hit you over the head; it presents the facts and trusts the audience to draw the obvious conclusions. Examples of this kind of filmmaking continue to give me faith in movies.