The raw power of the story - rife with myth, magic and misadventure - blends brilliantly with an earthy, universally appealing sense of humour.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 17, 2020

A beautifully told story, which captures indigenous Australia with warmth and humour.

| Sep 15, 2017

Both ethnographic document and high-spirited flight of whimsy: a curious mixture of entertainment and anthropology.

| Jan 2, 2016

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A unique and entertaining blend of anthropology and cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2009

The fable is a fascinating ethnographic document that satisfies just like any well told story.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 22, 2009

Really a fairly amazing achievement: an engrossing, witty cultural document that doesn't feel staid in the least. All this, plus spear fights.

| Oct 31, 2007

Sometimes all it takes to bridge the chasm of eons is a little humor.

| Oct 27, 2007

A study of community and ritual, Ten Canoes celebrates as it contemplates, emphasizing the fact that this collection of stories, Gulpilil's story in its many layers, is seen.

| Sep 15, 2007

As much an anthropology exercise as a cinematic experience, the Australian Ten Canoes goes back nearly a millennium to immerse us in the lives of the Aborigines who survived on the land centuries before the arrival of Europeans.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 7, 2007

A new and different kind of cinematic mythmaking.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 4, 2007

Gulpilil is the canny, subtle and funny narrator of 10 Canoes, a film of unutterable beauty, hypnotic fascination and universal humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 2, 2007

Parts of that narrative are surprisingly frank and irreverent.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 27, 2007

... a top-flight example of cinematic storytelling ...

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 26, 2007

Audacious and impressive, but challenging work, requiring steadfast concentration.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 19, 2007

Ten Canoes is a celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time and language. This is a movie with sheer magic in it.

| Jul 19, 2007

Australian writer-director Rolf de Heer is an extremely visual filmmaker, and his images stay with you. Ten Canoes' authenticity is guaranteed by a close collaboration with the Aboriginal community.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 13, 2007

It is rare that film can transport its audience to a strange, unfamiliar, yet entrancing world. Ten Canoes, an Australian movie that tells an ancient Yolngu tale, presents such an extraordinary experience.

| Jul 10, 2007

A wonderful celebration of storytelling that should translate to any audience in any world.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 6, 2007