With digital camera equipment slowly taking over Hollywood, its presence and scale of costliness ensures that making movies is open for all nations, rich or poor, to contribute to worldwide cinema. Of course, the real goal is to get people to actually watch foreign films, when they often possess the stigma of being humourless. And in most cases, they are.

Ten Canoes is a film concerning the original indigenous people of Australia. The last film that dealt with aboriginals was the “powerful” Rabbit-Proof Fence. But it was an “issue” film, and only contributes to the misnomer that if a film is foreign language, it’s not entertaining. Ten Canoes does the very opposite of this, dealing with tribal culture while maintaining a sense of fun.

Describing the plot is rather difficult, for the film works through multiple narratives. There’s the narrator, who describes the origins of the land, the story he tells, of his true ancestors as they embark on a goose hunting expedition, and the story that the leader of that group tells, which mirrors his own. The film concentrates mostly on that tale, in which a young man covets one of his leader’s wives, while the group deal with a stranger they believe to have magic powers.

Within the first few minutes we already feel the film sets itself apart from tribal cinema but using fart jokes. Sure, it’s puerile, but it makes a brave point. From documentaries and “issue” films our western perspective of such cultures seems to always involve poverty or depravity. Even when documentaries attempt to portray the joys of cultures, there’s often a condescending sentiment attached. This film invests us in the narrative so much as to bridge the gap between cultures. While the laws of the tribe are far from ours, they contain a naturalistic logic that feels fair: if you kills someone from another tribe, they have the opportunity to kill you. And everyone complies.

The film is filled with memorable characters. There’s the elder obsessed with honey, the superstitious leader, the bossy wife. Admittedly, these could be construed as clichés if incorporated into a typical rom-com, for example, but the film manages to bypass that through a poignant conclusion that completes the main thread of existence for all nations, to notions of life and death. And all of this is shot with the care and composure of a brilliant photographer, making nature a great presence in the film.

It’s only a pity the theatrical release of the film using an English narration. The DVD contains the original aboriginal voice-over, and adds authenticity to the tale. It’s a compromise that the producers had to make in order to get more butts on seats. My only other concern is its narrative frames. While the create a sense of legacy and myth, the first few minutes require close attention in order to fully grasp who is telling which tale.

Ten Canoes is a pleasant surprise of a film, for it manages to play with modern conceptions of ancient tribes, infusing its tale with a sense of fun, and ironically feeling more genuine than any documentary.