TEN CANOES (AUSTRALIA, 2006) (tbc). Wednesday, 12th March 2008Evening Performance preceded by the AGM at 7.00 p.m.
Australia, 2006. Directed by Rolf de Heer with Peter Djigirr from his own
screenplay written in consultation with the people of Ramingining.
Photography (Colour/Scope): Ian Jones. Music: Traditional.
Certificate: “15”. Length: 92 minutes.
Leading Players: CRUSOE KURDDAL (Ridjimiraril), JAMIE DAYINDI GULPILIL
(Dayindi/Yeeralparil), RICHARD BIRRINBIRRIN (Birrinbirrin),
PETER MINYGULULU (Minygululu), CASSANDRA
MASLANGARRI BAKER (Munandjarra), FRANCES DJULIBING
(Nowalingu), SONIA DJARRABALMINYM (Banalandju), PHILIP
GUDTHAYKUDTHAY (The Sorcerer), MICHAEL DAWU (The
Stranger) and DAVID GULPILIL RIDJIMIRARIL as the Storyteller.
Providing a memorable conclusion to our season is this singular and very beautiful film from Australia. To say that it is one of a kind would not quite be true because it does remind one of Atanarjuat – The Fast Runner which we screened in 2003, both films being ethnic ancient tales filmed on location and played by a cast of amateurs. The earlier movie was epic whereas this is compact: furthermore Atanarjuat was filmed in the Arctic regions and not in that part of the Australian Northern Territory known as Arnhem Land which provides the setting here. Nevertheless, the way in which an indigenous people act out a story reflecting their own history and mythology creates a crucial link between the two films.
The story behind the making of Ten Canoes is itself one of problems being encountered and overcome in a manner that would eventually make for a very engaging and highly idiosyncratic film. The origin of the piece is to be found in a meeting that took place in 2000. That was when the actor and performer David Gulpilil best remembered in England for his appearance in Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1970) invited the Dutch born but Australian based film-maker Rolf de Heer to spend Christmas with him. Taking up this invitation involved staying with Gulpilil in his main home in Ramingining and visiting the Arafura Swamp, all of this being part of what was Gulpilil’s ancestral land. Out of their meeting came a proposal to de Heer that he should make a film there, one that would be some kind of Aboriginal tale. This general idea was to take on a more concrete shape when Gulpilil produced a photograph taken by the anthropologist Dr. David Thomson in the mid-1930s. That was a time when the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land were little influenced by the arrival of white people and the photograph which Thomson took, a black and white picture showing ten men aboard bark canoes, carried echoes of a much earlier age. This photograph was one of thousands taken by Thomson in that part of the world but it was this particular image and the strong Yolngu storytelling tradition that became the basis of the film that was planned.
The whole project was undertaken with as much input and involvement as possible from the local people. They were keen that the film should incorporate a goose egg gathering expedition which was the event in progress when the photograph of the ten canoeists was taken. However, while Thomson remained so respected that they wanted his work to be a part of the film, they were wary of fictional dramas being incorporated. There was an additional difficulty too in that the financing obtained for the film required it to be in colour which conflicted with the fact that the crucial Thomson photographs were in black and white. These issues led to a solution that gave the film an unusual but very effective structure. What we have in essence is a story within a story within a story, which may sound confusing but isn’t.
Ten Canoes starts in colour with breath-taking modern day shots of the region and with David Gulpilil heard on the soundtrack as a storyteller addressing us, the cinema audience. The tale he tells relates back to the time of a goose egg hunting expedition led by an elder named Minygululu and these scenes are in black and white, a fact that both links in with the Thomson photographs and distinguishes this footage from the rest. The one plot point here is that Minygululu is aware that one of the canoeists, Dayindi, is lusting after his, Minygululu’s, third and youngest wife. That’s a situation that is threatening and not only on a personal level because if Dayindi were to act on his feelings he would be breaking tribal law. To discourage Dayindi from any such action, Minygululu proceeds to tell him a cautionary tale of long ago which also deals with a younger man drawn to a married woman. It’s this tale – the story within the story within the story – which takes up the greater part of the film and here drama is allowed its head since the local people’s worries about a dramatic story being part of the film did not extend to events that were depicted as taking place in mythical times. All of this is photographed in colour which, striking in itself, prevents any confusion when one cuts back at intervals to Minygululu and to Dayindi who may or may not take to heart the message of the tale he is being told.
Although in the end David Gulpilil’s role was limited to that of the off-screen narrator (in this print he speaks in English but the rest of the film is sub-titled), it did mean that his son, Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil, became central to the project. Indeed he has a dual role appearing not only as Dayindi but as the equivalent figure in the cautionary tale, the young Yeeralparil who has his eye on one of his brother’s wives. But the ancient tale, sometimes tense, sometimes bawdy, extends beyond that aspect to tell a compelling story about a tribe’s distrust of a stranger leading to false assumptions and a misguided act of violence. Despite any distant echoes of Atanarjuat – The Fast Runner, Ten Canoes creates a totally individual world and has an appeal all its own. It’s entertaining and it’s different and memorable, not just for its originality but for the way in which it reflects a distant culture. The fact that de Heer’s co-director was Peter Djigirr, a member of the Arafura Swamp people born in 1963 who also appears as one of the ten canoeists, is itself indicative of the extent to which this film was created as a work that would satisfy those peoples whose traditions are portrayed here.
Filmography (title underlined shown by the EFS):
Tail Of A Tiger (1984); Incident At Raven’s Gate (1987); Bad Boy Bubby (1993); Epsilon (1995); The Quiet Room (1996); Dance Me To My Song (1997); The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (1999); The Tracker (2002); Alexandra’s Project (2003); Ten Canoes (2006).
WINNER of the SPECIAL JURY PRIZE at CANNES and of SIX AUSTRALIAN FILM INSTITUTE AWARDS including BEST FILM.
WINNER of the GRAND PRIX at the FLANDERS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
“Wise, warm, witty fare. Marvellous.” – Time Out.
“**** Warm, absorbing and very funny, Ten Canoes offers a fascinating insight into another culture. Simple, brilliant storytelling” – Empire.
Programme notes by Mansel Stimpson
