Category: 32
All Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Release Year: 2006
Country: Australia
Runtime: 90
Rating: (0)
Languages: Aboriginal, English
Director: Rolf de HeerPeter Djigirr
Sound: Dolby Digital
Taglines:

  • Ten canoes, three wives, one hundred and fifty spears…trouble
  • One hundred and fifty spears, ten canoes, three wives . . . trouble
  • From a land not so far away, comes a film unlike anything you have ever seen


    • Writing by: Rolf de Heer – writer

    Produced by: Richard Birrinbirrin – associate producer
    Rolf de Heer – producer
    Bryce Menzies – executive producer
    Sue Murray – executive producer
    Nils Erik Nielsen – associate producer
    Domenico Procacci – executive producer
    Julie Ryan – producer
    Belinda Scott – associate producer

    Cast: Crusoe Kurddal – Ridjimiraril
    Jamie Gulpilil – Dayindi / Yeeralparil (as Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu)
    Richard Birrinbirrin – Birrinbirrin
    Peter Minygululu – Minygululu
    Frances Djulibing – Nowalingu
    David Gulpilil – The Storyteller (as David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu)
    Sonia Djarrabalminym – Banalandju
    Cassandra Malangarri Baker – Munandjarra
    Philip Gudthaykudthay – The Sorcerer
    Peter Djigirr – Canoeist / The Victim / Warrior
    Michael Dawu – Canoeist / The Stranger

    Music: Kevin Baldes Lit Ajay Popoff Jeremy Popoff Allen Shellenberger
    Official Website: Visit Website


    Plot Outline: A story within a story. In Australia's Northern Territory, a man tells us one of the stories of his people and his land…
    Plot: A story within a story. In Australia's Northern Territory, a man tells us one of the stories of his people and his land. It's a story of an older man, Minygululu, who has three wives and realizes that his younger brother Dayindi may try to steal away the youngest wife. So, over a few days and several trips to hunt and gather, Minygululu tells Dayindi a story set in the time of their ancestors when a stranger came to the village and disrupted the lives of a serious man named Ridjimiraril, his three wives, and his younger brother Yeeralparil who had no wife and liked to visit his youngest sister-in-law. Through stories, can values be taught and balance achieved?

    Movie Quotes: The group:”>all walking in a line]
    Canoeist: Everyone stop!
    “>all stop and turn]
    The Storyteller: That one is Djigirr. Djigirr talk too much, but maybe he heard something.
    Canoeist: I refuse to walk at the end. Someone ahead keeps farting.
    The group:”>laughter] Not me. Not me.
    Canoeist: It's you again. You're always so silent. Silent but deadly. Admit it.
    Canoeist: Alright, it's me.
    Canoeist: You're rotten inside.
    Canoeist: I'm rotten inside.
    Canoeist: You get to the end of line.


    Crazy Credits: We know about 1 Crazy Credits. One of them reads:
    Pieces of wallpaper are peeled off to reveal each of the opening credits.

    Goofs: We know about 2 goofs. Here comes one of them:
    Continuity: When the 'bubble' hits the trailer with the boy and the dog inside, the expression on the dog changes dramatically between shots (between snarling and neutral).

    Trivia: There are 4 entries in the trivia list – like these:

    • This will be the first ever major Australian feature film completely filmed in an Indigenous Aboriginal language.
    • The title “Ten Canoes” was inspired by a photograph shown to Director Rolf de Heer by Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil. The picture was of group of ten native men in their bark canoes on the Arafura swamp. The photo was taken by anthropologist Dr Donald Thomson who worked in central and north-eastern Arnhem Land seventy years earlier during the mid-1930s.
    • During shooting in the Northern Territory of Australia's remote Arafura Swamp, the crew required eleven crocodile spotters for safety of the cast and crew