FILM OF THE WEEK
INTERVIEW | review: Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread) |
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| Written by Boyd van Hoeij | |
| Friday, 02 December 2005 | |
 In an age in which the documentary genre seems to favour screaming op/ed pieces à la Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock over the more traditional non-fiction narratives (the success of La marche de l’empereur/The March of the Penguins seems to be the exception that confirms the rule), the new film from Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter is – quite literally – an oasis of calm self-reflection. A film about the foodstuffs we eat every day that is simply titled Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread), Geyrhalter’s work is both a return to a more observing style of documentary making as well as an audacious provocation that, in an odd twist, derives it audacity from its lack of explicit point of view.Anything but an assembly line picture, Unser täglich Brot offers us 90 minutes of well-edited footage showing how and where our food is grown, prepared and processed, without a single word of commentary throughout. The film opens with the sight of a man cleaning the floor in what turns out to be a slaughterhouse, which is followed by shot of an unmanned vehicle transporting boxes filled with perfectly red and round tomatoes through a greenhouse. Different meats, fruits and vegetables all make appearances, as do some of the people who work at the establishments that produce them. On the soundtrack we find nothing other than the direct sound which the filmmakers captured at the sites of production, creating a sense of heightened realism that is in direct contrast with the way Geyrhalter, who not only directed but also shot the feature, has decided to frame his subjects. Each single shot is carefully composed and offers something of beauty – floating apples in numbered lanes became inexplicably spellbinding under his direction. In the end, the film’s procession of production plants leaves it up to the audience to draw its own conclusions about the food we eat every day, coaxing open-minded viewers into their own dedicated session of food philosophy for the duration of the film. Wolfgang Widerhofer’s crisp editing expertly strings the shots together in a way that gently guides the viewer’s own reflections on where our food comes from and how far we are removed as a society from any direct knowledge of food production. Geyrhalter also includes shots of solitary workers during their lunch breaks to underline the fact that food is a necessity of life and that in order to eat people must work. Brot went home with the Special Jury Award at the recent International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam and will certainly appeal to those who are interested in a documentary that requires active interaction with the material presented. One wonders, however, how much of a commercial success an audacious and necessary film such as Geyrhalter’s could become. Here is to hoping it will offer food for thought for more than just the festival audience. This film was screened as part of the 2006 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. Browse: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, amazon.de, dvdGO.es, internetbookshop.it, nl.bol.com, allposters.com.
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