>>REVIEW
Ten Canoes
DIRECTED BY Rolf de Heer
Opens Friday, June 29
The Plaza
Anthropology and gifted cinematography come together in Ten Canoes, Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer’s (Dance Me To My Song, The Quiet Room) homage to storytelling and its historic tie to the Aboriginal people of Australia.
Touted as the first feature film shot entirely in the Ganalbingu language (while cleverly incorporating an English voice-over for global appeal), the film is a story-within-a-story-within-a-story. The twice-framed narrative tells a tragic, 1,000-year-old tale of two Aboriginal brothers, the younger of whom longs heedlessly for the youngest of his older brother’s three wives.
Contemporary tribesman Minygululu relays this ancient parable to his own younger brother while on a hunting expedition, with the sole intention of imparting its moral of self-restraint and fortitude to his equally eager sibling. All of this, in turn, gets passed on via the narrator to the viewer, further perpetuating the potency of the art of storytelling.
While recent films like Jindabyne and Rabbit Proof Fence have forcefully confronted the racial divide that continues to infest the continent, de Heer addresses the hot-button issue by ignoring it outright. Instead, he focuses his efforts on telling an amusing, moving and genuinely entertaining tale of a truly organic culture — and we are drawn in.
The layered story weaves about a cast of fully rounded characters, inciting raw passions, love, lust and vengeance. However, de Heer also tosses in the occasional fart joke. The end result is a beautiful, unassuming work of art that graciously offers to unite us all in our humanity. David Gulpilil’s (Rabbit Proof Fence, The Last Wave) congenial, light-hearted approach to the narration leaves the viewer disarmed and fully susceptible to the film’s intimate charm.
Stunning visuals complement the story’s poetic affirmations, while genuine performances from a cast of novice Aboriginal actors embolden the film’s deep, documentary-like authenticity. A layer of ribald humour serves to further integrate the audience into a "primitive" culture that is more attuned to reality than any society founded on cash and concrete. |
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