Skip to main content

Sunburnt Screens: An Australian Film Odyssey Ten Canoes

29 June 2024

In the Playhouse

Cinema

Australia | 2006 | Yolngu Matha, English | Historical Drama

Direct from its Sydney Film Festival premiere, Rolf de Heer and Peter Djiggir’s cautionary tale of forbidden love is screening in a stunning new 4K restoration. The first Australian feature filmed entirely in Indigenous languages tells the story of an older man, Minygululu, who realises his younger brother, Dayindi, may try to steal away his third and youngest wife.

One of de Heer’s most distinct and memorable films.

The Guardian

A new 4K restoration direct from its Sydney Film Festival premiere

Shot on and around the beautiful Arafura Swamp, the film unfolds during a goose egg gathering expedition on which a young Dayindi (actor David Gulpilil’s son Jamie Gulpilil), is told of trouble in the mythical time of his ancestors which came of wrong love. Taking inspiration from the ethnographic photographs of Donald Thompson, de Heer uses Thomson’s representations of culture and reappropriates this cultural history telling a Yolngu story in Yolngu voice spoken in the Ganalbingu and Mandalpingu languages.

Presented by Sydney Opera House with Umbrella Entertainment and hosted by Alexei Toliopoulos

Trailer

Watch a clip from the film

Cast and credits

Credits

Director 
Peter Djigirr

Director and screenwriter 
Rolf de Heer

Narrator David Gulpilil

Cast

Cruose Kurddal 
as Ridjimiraril

Jamie Gulpilil 
as Dayindi/Yeeralparil

Richard Birrinbirrin 
as Birrinbirrin

Other information

You may also like

NT Live: Prima Facie

23 & 26 Jan 2025

Jodie Comer’s (Killing Eve) Olivier and Tony Award-winning performance in Suzie Miller’s gripping one-woman play comes to the Sydney Opera House screen.

  • Cinema

Before Sunrise

25 Jan 2025

The first instalment in Richard Linklater’s beloved Before trilogy stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Céline, whose lives are changed forever when they meet on a train bound for Vienna.

  • Cinema

Ponyo

26 Jan 2025

One morning near his seaside home, five year old Sosuke discovers a goldfish he names Ponyo, her head stuck in a jam jar. He rescues her, and fascinated with each other, they promise to stay firm friends.

  • Cinema
  • Kids & Families

Checking availability