The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who lived to be 92 and spent much of his life in the aristocratic splendour of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, famously opined that the life of primitive man was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". Jacques Rousseau, on the other hand, in direct contradiction of Christian theology, was convinced that man had been born good, and that primitive man was indeed the "noble savage".

Rolf de Heer, a maker of small, quirky and interesting films ("Bad Boy Bubby", "The Old Man Who Read Love Stories", "The Tracker"),probably doesn't subscribe to either notion. In this exquisitely photographed tale from the mythical past he lets the aboriginals of the Arafura wetlands, Arnhem Land, tell their own story. Apart from David Gulpilil, who provides a gentle, teasing voice-over, and his son Jamie, all the parts are played by non-professional actors from the district. Apart from the voice-over, all the dialogue is in the local aboriginal language (don't worry, there are sub-titles).

While on a goose egg hunting trip, Older Brother , who has noticed his younger brother's interest in one of his wives, tells Younger Brother a story from a much earlier time, of another younger brother who yearned after his older brother's wife. Without giving the story away, the moral is "be careful about what you wish for, you might get it", but much happens in between. It becomes evident that these "savages", as well as possessing a robust sense of humor, have a legal system that minimizes the damage done by crimes. It seems that neighboring tribes, whose language our tribe scarcely understands, will play by the same rules. Once honour is satisfied, the matter is at an end. The story gives us an insight as to how aboriginal society remained stable for so long prior to contact with Europeans.

It is hard to comment on the acting, other than to say the characters seem completely authentic. The tribe's sorcerer, for instance, likes to choose a bone to wear in his nose to suit his mood or the occasion, just as your local GP might like to select a bow tie before opening his surgery. But I have to mention Crusoe Kusddal as Ridjimiraril, the older brother in the myth. His language means little to us, but his expression everything.

The scenes on the goose-hunt, which book-end the main story, are in black and white, a tribute to earlier photographers in Arnhem Land, but most of the film is in colour, which does full justice to the landscape. This is no Garden of Eden – the necessity to build tree platforms while camping in the swamp is evidence of that (though we see no actual crocodiles). Yet the aborigines manage to live within the environment without despoiling it or each other. Theirs is a patriarchal society but women are protected by the rules as well as by their menfolk. The movie is a fascinating glimpse into the culture, told in a disarmingly humorous fashion, by the people themselves. One should not be too misty-eyed about this – the cast probably watch "The Simpsons" via satellite at home – but they have given us both a droll tale and some food for thought.

Maybe I could have rated Ten Canoes a bit higher but six is the rating I give to a good movie that I will only watch once and that's the case with this one. There are a lot of good things about Ten Canoes, stunning cinematography with beautiful nature shots, some images shot in color and others in black and white, it all contributed to make it a visual fest. The narrating of David Gulpilil is pleasant to listen to. The acting wasn't bad at all and that even though they probably couldn't play anything else than an Aboriginal. The story is interesting, gives you a better understanding about the Aboriginal culture, which by the way I'm happy I'm not part of. I couldn't see myself living naked in the outback where there are more deadly animals than anywhere else in the world. Ten Canoes is certainly worth a watch, with subtitles would be the better option.

There have been a number of films made in Australia about the country's aboriginal population, such as "Walkabout", "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence", but those all concern relations between Aborigines and white Australians. "Ten Canoes" does something different by telling a story set in Australia's aboriginal past, before the first white men arrived in the country. All the actors are Aborigines, and the dialogue is in the language of the Ganalbingu tribe from what is today Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

The structure of the film is quite complex, and makes use of what is called in German "Rahmentechnik", or framework technique, the setting of a story within a story. As the two stories are similar they are differentiated by using colour photography for the main story and black-and-white for the "frame". In the framework story, ten men from the tribe are on an expedition to hunt for the eggs of the magpie geese. (The title is taken from the ten canoes in which they travel). One of the young men, Dayindi, is in love with one of the wives of his elder brother Minygululu. (The tribe practise polygamy). This threatens to cause friction between them, but Minygululu tries to defuse the situation by telling his brother a cautionary tale from the "dreamtime", the legendary aboriginal past, about two other brothers in a similar position.

The two brothers in the main story are called Ridjimiraril and Yeeralparil. (To provide unity between the two stories, Dayindi and Yeeralparil are played by the same actor, Jamie Gulpilil. His father David, well-known from films such as "Walkabout" and "Crocodile Dundee", acts as the film's narrator). Ridjimiraril has three wives, and Yeeralparil, who is unmarried, is in love with the youngest, Munandjarra. When Nowalingu, one of Ridjimiraril's other wives, disappears, he is convinced that she has been abducted by another tribe, and he kills the man he believes responsible. To avoid all-out war between the tribes, Ridjimiraril must undergo an ordeal in which he tries to avoid spears thrown at him by his enemies, and Yeeralparil must join him in this ordeal. When Ridjimiraril is killed, Yeeralparil, as his younger brother, is obliged under tribal law to marry all three of his wives, not only the beautiful Munandjarra but also Nowalingu (who has returned to the tribe and, it turns out, was not kidnapped at all) and the third wife Banalandju, neither of whom he really fancies.

The narrative structure of the film may be complicated, the underlying folk-tale-like story is a simple one. Although a hunter-gatherer culture like that of the Aborigines may be very different to our own, many of their preoccupations are the same as ours- not just physical needs like eating and sex, but also more abstract concepts. The ordeal by spear may seem strange to our eyes, but it is rooted in ideas that are familiar to us- law, justice, and the need to set limits to revenge in order to prevent blood-feuds or the outbreak of all-out war. (If only Bush and Saddam could have settled their differences by throwing spears at one another).

Despite some serious themes- love, jealousy and crime and punishment- there is a lot of humour in the film, much of it bawdy- it contains the most memorable fart jokes since Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles"- or at the expense of the characters, especially Birrinbirrin, the corpulent tribal elder whose great pleasure in life is eating honey. The cast all play their roles with great naturalness and sincerity. Another important feature is the beautiful photography of Arnhem Land- not the dry, barren outback that normally comes to mind when we think of Australia, but a much lusher, more fertile tropical landscape. The result is a poetic and haunting film, quite unlike any other, which acts as a window into a culture with which few people outside Australia will be familiar. 8/10