The movie and also the movie about how it was made , The Balano and the Bark Canoes , shows the great struggle the indigenous people have made to keep their culture alive . The film and the documentary about the making of the film , The Balano and the Bark Canoes , give a remarkable testimony to the indigenous struggle to keep their culture alive - or rather revive it in the wake of considerable relative modernization and influence of white ( ` balano ' ) cultural imposition .