Anyone remotely familiar with the culture of the Australian Aborigines will delight in this innovative telling of an ancient tale and how it superimposes on the life of a group of present day Aborigines.

A young man going out on his first goose egg hunt in the swamps of Arnham Land with the other men of his small tribe is distracted by thoughts for the youngest of his older brother’s three wives.

When the wise older brother learns the younger man desires one of his wives he launches into an ancient story that mirrors the circumstances and shows what happened when lust, sorcery and inept revenge collide amongst a similar tribe of Aborigines in the long ago past.

This Aborigine movie classic, perhaps the first of its kind, is full of surprisingly offbeat humour that shows the often mysterious outback dwellers in a humanising light.

An imaginative switching between colour footage, black and white film and a bleached “netherworld” effect adds to the dreamlike quality.

Respect is paid to the way of life of the Aborigines and their lengthy story-telling tradition which, for the young, unmarried Dayindi, means his eagerness to learn what happens to his long ago counterpart Yeeralparil (who lusted for his older brother’s youngest wife also) is temporarily put on hold as the egg hunters build bark canoes and carry them to the swamps, hunt for the eggs and build tree platforms on which to rest out of reach of crocodiles.

In this way ‘Ten Canoes’ also gives documentary glimpses of the daily life of the Aborigines as the inter-twinned stories unfold.

What is remarkable about this film is the way it captures the essence of the Aborigine story-telling tradition, the unhurried pace, and the way the story’s many branches must all be revealed before the end is reached.

The story is enhanced by the sometimes droll narration of Aborigine actor David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu as he brings the “story within a story” of the ancients to the viewer. The on-screen Aborigine actors speak in their native dialects, their words appearing with nuances and humour faithfully reproduced in the subtitles where needed.

Written by Rolf de Heer, who also directs along with Peter Djigirr, this life-affirming tale deserves the unexpected wide audience appreciation that met March of the Penguins.

‘Ten Canoes’ is a delightful moral trek into the dangers of “wrong love” and how the Aborigine people learn their own laws that allow them to live the “Right way with the Right land”.