Ten Canoes combines adventure, comedy, and anthropology to explore an Aborigine folk tale both fallibly human and legendary. Helmer Rolf de Heer depicts a barely represented oral tradition with a clean style.
Ten Canoes combines adventure, comedy, and anthropology to explore an Aborigine folk tale both fallibly human and legendary. Helmer Rolf de Heer depicts a barely represented oral tradition with a clean style.
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A man teaches his younger brother an important lesson through an ancient fable in this period comedy drama shot in Australia, and the first feature film made in the Aboriginal language of Ganalbingu. As narrator David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu sets up the story, we watch a group of tribesmen led by elder Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) set out on an expedition to gather bark for canoe building and collect the precious eggs of the magpie geese. It has become clear to Minygululu that his
younger brother Dayindi (Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu) is infatuated with the youngest of his three wives, and Minygululu wants to be sure Dayindi doesn't do something he'll regret later on. To teach his brother a lesson, Minygululu shares with him a long story about Ridjimiraril (Crusoe Kurddal), a warrior who finds that his brother Yeeralparil (also played by Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu) has become a rival for the affections of his bride. However, while Minygululu's story caries a clear message for his brother, it also goes on long enough with enough twists, turns, and digressions that it gives Dayindi little opportunity to get into mischief during the trip. Ten Canoes received its world premiere at Australia's Adelaide Festival of Arts, and was first screened in North America at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Australian writer-director Rolf de Heer is an extremely visual filmmaker, and his images stay with you. Ten Canoes' authenticity is guaranteed by a close collaboration with the Aboriginal community.
Provided you're not Puritanical about frontal nudity, this powerful picture based on a myth is otherwise a delight, and a cinematic preservation of a so-called primitive people's oral tradition.
A study of community and ritual, Ten Canoes celebrates as it contemplates, emphasizing the fact that this collection of stories, Gulpilil's story in its many layers, is seen.
As much an anthropology exercise as a cinematic experience, the Australian Ten Canoes goes back nearly a millennium to immerse us in the lives of the Aborigines who survived on the land centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
Ten Canoes is a celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time and language. This is a movie with sheer magic in it.
"Ten Canoes" starts with a narrator(David Gulpilil) telling a story about his ancestors. Minygululu(Peter Minygululu), husband to three wives, is taking his younger brother, Dayindi(Jamie Gulpilil), to the swamps for a goose hunt for the first time. Minygululu knows that his brother has an eye on his youngest wife, so
he tells him about two of his ancestors, Ridjimiraril(Crusoe Kurddal) and Yeeralparil(Jamie Gulpilil), who were in a similar situation."Two Canoes" is a beautiful exploration of the oral tradition of storytelling in Aboriginal culture.(The film is alternately shot in bleached out colors.) This is how information is related from one generation to the next. For example, Minygululu is not only teaching his younger brother about how to hunt in the swamps but also to be patient and never to do anything rash. In other words, all he has to do is wait and he will get what he wants. Remember in this society, everything is as it has been for thousands of years and will be the same for years to come. Nothing is going anywhere. And if all of that sounds very dry, do not worry. There is enough irreverence to go around for everyone.
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