Moviola > Films > Ten Canoes

Ten Canoes (15)   90 mins

"Ten canoes, three wives, one hundred and fifty spears...trouble."

"Once upon a time, far far away.." begins the film's narrator David Gulpilil (Walkabout, Rabbit Proof Fence), but then he laughs, explains that that was a joke and says that he has a real story to tell.  The first feature film to be made in an Australian indigenous language, Ten Canoes interweaves two versions of the same story, with the same actors playing in both, one filmed in black and white and set a thousand years ago, and an even older one, filmed in colour and set in a mythic, prehistoric past. A thousand years ago, in tribal times in the north of Australia, ten men, led by old Minygululu (Peter Minygululu), head into the forest to harvest barks for canoe making. It is the season of goose egg gathering, and the men have to get out onto the swamp and hunt the magpie geese and their eggs (always avoiding the crocs). Minygululu learns that young Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil), has taken a fancy to Minygululu's third and youngest wife. Tribal law is in danger of being broken: Minygululu decides to deal with the situation by telling Dayindi an instructive, parallel, ancestral story, a story that will take a very long time to tell, all through the days of canoe making and swamp travelling and goose egg gathering.  Its message can be boiled down to the phrase “All in good time.” 

"There are many things about Ten Canoes that are remarkable. First and foremost is de Heer's respectful direction and treatment of the topics. The performances from non-actors are outstanding (Gulpilil's son Jamie is especially appealing) and the remote, crocodile infested settings spectacular. Above all, it is the way everyday life with its mundane ups and downs, rests beside the spiritual. This is indeed a journey whose ripples propel us to a distant place. May Ten Canoes find a wide and receptive audience."  Urban Cinefile

"Rolf de Heer's Ten Canoes is a richly layered folk-myth drama set among Australian Aborigine tribes in the Northern Territory: a tale of war and love and death among unclothed hunter-gatherers. There is beautiful photography, and some terrifically insouciant performances from first-time actors." Peter Bradshaw

NB This film is in Ganalbingu with English subtitles.

www.tencanoes.com.au

Last modified: 20-Jun-2008

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