Ten Canoes

Director Rolf De Heer has created a marvelous little film that takes place in a remote section of Australia. All of the characters are Aborigine and the film, with the exception of the voice over which is in English, is in an indigenous Australian language. The wonderful narration is done by David Gulpilil.

We start off with some men going on a goose egg hunt and building canoes. One of them tells a story (a fable if you will) to another one. The story takes its time to unfold. It is about a man who has three wives. His younger brother does not have any wives but he fancies the older brother's youngest wife. The people seem to live in harmony but something happens to disrupt things. I won't say more about the plot. The film is beautifully shot and sometimes it is in color and sometimes it is in black and white.

I will say that this is a very unusual film and I think that one of the messages is that one must have patience in life (not an easy thing to do). Another lesson might be that even if it looks like we will get something we just might not. In any case, if you want to find out about people that you usually hear nothing about then this film is for you.