A joke about flatulence comes early in Australian writer-director Rolf de Heer's tragicomedy "Ten Canoes," yet this richly layered film couldn't be further removed from the low-brow concerns of a Hollywood sex comedy. Set a thousand years ago in Australia's far northern Arnhem Land, it manages to skirt the issue of race relations, a hot-button topic in a country where black and white Australians are still coming to grips with their recent disharmonious history. Yet, in telling this ancient story with style and humor, de Heer and his Aboriginal collaborators promote cultural understanding and acceptance by stealth, if you will.

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