Ten Canoes

Aroview: Beguiling Aboriginal parable from Rolf de Heer is an evocative time-warp of Australia’s rich ancestry, told through the campfire narration of David Gulpilil.

Framed around a hunting expedition in the outback swamplands, de Heer not only steeps the film in history, but textures it with visuals of vast mystique. An indigenous milestone (the first all-Aboriginal language Australian feature), this is also simultaneously appealing as a native anthropology, while the non-actor cast lend a jokey, naturalistic quality to the storytelling, itself a simple cave drawing transcended by de Heer’s nous for time and place.

NZ International Film Festival 2006

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