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Ten Canoes
Australian Fairy Tale Based on Aborigine Parable
Film Review by Kam Williams
Once upon a time, about a thousand years ago, and well before the
arrival of the white man Down Under, ten aborigines made their way
into the forest to find just the right tree bark to build themselves
some canoes. En route, it came to the attention of Minygululu (Peter
Minygululu ), the elder leading the expedition, that his younger
sibling, Dayindi (Jamie Gilpilil), had a crush on the prettiest of
his three wives.
Even in this polygamous society, there's a cultural commandment that
thou shalt not covet thy brother's wife. So, Minygululu decides to
handle the situation a little like Scheherazade of 1001 Arabian
Nights. You may remember Scher, the loquacious concubine in the
harem of the Persian King, who avoided a beheading by beguiling her
highness nightly with a neverending tale of romance which was a
precursor to the modern-day soap opera.
Here, Minygululu has opted to deal with his predicament by spinning
an intriguing yarn which will extend for the duration of their
expedition, not merely for the boat making, but also as they paddle
through the swamps in search of magpie goose eggs. His goal is to
get his bachelor brother's mind off adultery by relating a
cautionary tale which ought to teach the post-pubescent lad to be
more respectful of the tribe's ancestral ways.This is the basic idea
behind Ten Canoes, the first, Australian full-length feature
shot in an indigenous tongue.
The characters' dialogue has been augmented with the voice an
English-speaking narrator, which has the effect of imbuing the
production, periodically, with the feel of an issue of National
Geographic come to life, given the absence of modesty among the cast
of carefree natives who cavort naked in every scene.
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.
 Excellent
Unrated
In Yolgnu Matha and English with subtitles.
Running time: 90 minutes
Studio: Palm Pictures
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Lloyd Kam Williams
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 Lloyd
Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who
writes for 100+ publications around the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of
the African-American Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics
Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee, and Rotten Tomatoes. In
addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from
Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam
lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.
IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view.
However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of
the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or
employees at IMD.
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