sf indiefest

Roxie Cinema 2/12/2007 4:30PM

2/17/2007 9:30PM

California Theater-Berkeley 2/15/2007 9:30PM

This is a big true story of the long ago time and the time before that. A story within a story with spears and humor, goose eggs, wives, more wives, and perhaps too many wives. Ten men set out in canoes into the Arafura Swamp to collect goose eggs and an elder notices the youngest member of the clan is making eyes at his brother’s youngest wife. To divert him the elder tells the story of ten men setting out in canoes to collect eggs and how a young member of the clan covets his brother’s youngest wife.

Shot on location with the collaboration of the Yolngu people of Ramininging in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory, “Ten Canoes” was directed by Rolf de Heer (“The Tracker”) and co-directed by Peter Dijigirr. The first film shot in the Aboriginal language, “Ten Canoes” also features a rollicking Engligh narration by David Gulpilil (“Walkabout,” “The Tracker”). Making the film was an adventure—casting required that relationships within the film had to follow clan laws, and the canoes constructed for the film have become a rallying point for the preservation of Aboriginal culture. “Ten Canoes” was a hit at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and is Australia’s candidate for Best Foreign Film Oscar.