Ten Canoes - Preview and awards win
Preview by Jack Foley
TEN Canoes is a drama immersed in the rich history of the Indigenous Yolngu tribe of Australia, written, directed and produced by Rolf De Heer (of The Tracker and Alexandra’s Project fame).
It screened to great acclaim at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize, and it has the honour of being Australia’s entry for the 2007 Academy Awards. The film was also selected to be a Film on the Square at the 2007 London Film Festival.
It also won six Australian Film Institute awards, including best film and best direction, prompting de Heer, who co-directed with Peter Djigirr, to say that the film, set in the days before Europeans arrived, had touched its audiences.
“Audiences everywhere find something in it,” he said.
Further AFI awards came for for best original screenplay, best cinematography, best editing and best sound.
The film was shot in the remote crocodile-infested swamps of northern Australia and stars a clutch of untrained actors.
In the tribal times, a thousand years ago in the northern territory of Australia, Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil) covets the youngest of his brother Minygululu’s three wives, as he has no wife of his own.
As they make their canoes to travel across the swamp, Minygululu tells Dayindi a story from the mythical past about another young man who wanted his brother’s youngest wife for himself; a story of love, kidnapping, sorcery, bungling mayhem and revenge gone wrong.
Ten Canoes is due to open in UK cinemas next year.