nwFilmCenter

Australia

Fri, Feb 16, 2007
at 7 PM

Sun, Feb 18, 2007
at 2:15 PM

Ten Canoes

DIRECTOR: ROLF DE HEER
AUSTRALIA
The first major Australian feature to be filmed in an indigenous Aboriginal language (predominantly Ganalbingu), the tragicomic Ten Canoes is set before the arrival of white people to Australia, and in the mythical past. Filmed in arresting black and white is the story of Dayindi, who covets one of his older brother's wives. To teach him the proper way, he is told a story—filmed in glorious color—from the ancestral past about wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery and revenge gone wrong. Poetic, sensual, funny, intriguing and utterly unique, the story draws from a deep well of indigenous storytelling traditions and conveys the richness of a culture that has existed for tens of thousands of years. The story may be ancient, but the cinema is as fresh as can be imagined. This year's Australian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. ( 92 min )

Filmography: Dingo (91), Bad Boy Bubby (93), The Tracker (02), Alexandra's Project (03).
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Sat, Feb 17, 2007
at 6:15 PM

Mon, Feb 19, 2007
at 6 PM

Jindabyne

DIRECTOR: RAY LAWRENCE
AUSTRALIA
Adapted from Raymond Carver's short story "So Much Water So Close to Home," Jindabyne is set in a remote, mountainous corner of Australia. Stewart and Claire's (Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney) relationship has never quite recovered from a breakdown Claire suffered when their child was born. When Stewart and three buddies with various women troubles of their own escape on a fishing trip, their enigmatic reaction to a horrifying discovery forces them to confront their individual demons with a terrifying and inescapable immediacy. Lawrence uses genre elements, much as he did in Lantana (PIFF 29) to investigate a number of complex ideas—cultural displacement, environmental degradation and the insularity and secrecy of small town life—but it is the idea that one can never truly know another—lovers and husbands included—that forms the dark spare heart of this morality tale. ( 123 min )

Filmography: Lantana (01).
Sponsored by Red Door Films.
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