Ten Canoes

Co directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr of the Ramingining community, this Australian film was the first feature shot entirely in Aboriginal languages. It began with a single photograph: David Gulpilil invited de Heer to his home in Arnhem Land and showed him an image taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in the 1930s of ten men poling canoes through the Arafura Swamp to gather magpie goose eggs. The narrative runs on two timelines, distinguished by color: the recent past frame story is in black and white while the mythical past inside it is in color, exactly the reverse of the usual convention. In the frame, the elder Minygululu notices his younger brother eyeing his youngest wife and tells him a cautionary story from the mythical past. The entire cast came from the region and none had acted before, the crew worked for hours waist deep in water, and eleven crocodile spotters were hired to keep them safe. The film won the Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and took six of its seven nominations at the Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Who it's for: Anyone interested in Indigenous storytelling traditions and where cinema meets anthropology. Who it's not for: Not for viewers expecting a Western style plot, since the film moves at its own pace through a story within a story.