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The characters in Ten Canoes are all played by members of the Ramingining community from north-eastern Arnhem Land. Not a single performer who appears on screen has ever acted before, giving the film a naturalism and vibrancy to the performances that is difficult to adequately describe. Cinematographer Ian Jones, who has worked well with de Heer in the past, has shot this film with extraordinary skill and subtlety; the luminous quality of the images, saturated with the variegated greens and browns of the swamp environment, is gorgeous in the extreme. James Currie’s enveloping sound design is another of the film’s exquisite elements; another long-time collaborator of de Heer, Currie endows the film with a staggeringly beautiful soundscape that is perfectly evocative of the Arnhem Land environment, and subtly enhances the emotional film’s terrain. For over two decades now, Rolf de Heer has shown himself to be one of Australia’s most groundbreaking, idiosyncratic, intelligent and unpredictable filmmakers and his exquisite film will be talked about for years to come. |
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Screening on 1 November is Ten Canoes, a film by Rolf De Heer (The Tracker, Bad Boy Bubby, Alexandra’s Project) and the people of Ramingining. The official selection for Un Certain Regard at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Ten Canoes tells numerous stories, and also concerns itself very directly with the act of storytelling. As the ravishing opening-credits images of Arnhem Land unfold, the evocative voice of David Gulpilil tells us that we’re in for a story, his story, the story of his character’s people. Set in both the distant past and a nearer timeframe, Ten Canoes tells an almost mythic story of jealousy and desire, and is overlaid with a narrative of brotherhood and community. From narratives of goose-egg gathering to tribal conflict and infidelity, the stories told in Ten Canoes are woven together beautifully, and are consistently surprising, exciting and humorous.