‘A story like you’ve never heard before’ claims well-known Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu’s droll off-screen narrator, and this deeply enjoyable fable fully delivers on his promise.
Directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, Ten Canoes was conceived in collaboration with the indigenous community of Ramingining and developed into a stylishly told ancient tale with a refreshingly modern feel. Setting out on an annual goose egg collecting expedition, old Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) discovers that his younger unmarried brother Dayindi (Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu) has designs on his third and youngest wife. To ‘help him live the proper way’, Minygululu decides to tell him a salutary tale of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery and inept revenge set in the mythological past, replete with plentiful digressions and ample bawdy humour.
Combining ethnographic detail with an entertaining narrative, showing respect without being preachy, this guilelessly enchanting film is an unmissable one of a kind. Sandra hebron.