 A FilmExposed Film Review |
 Dir: Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2005, Germany/Poland, 92 mins
Our Daily Bread is documentary filmmaking in its most distilled form. There is no narration or music, and the film comes without any captions or interviews. We are given no context for the pictures we're seeing, with director Nikolaus Geyrhalter declining to offer his own perspective on the subject matter, instead leaving it open for audience interpretation. Our Daily Bread is a film about food processing in contemporary Europe. Filmed on location at various farms and meat plants, the film takes a blunt and objective look at the methods used to mass-produce meat products in an efficient and profitable manner. We see how hi-tech machinery has revolutionised these practices, but human beings still have a role to play in this environment, with people being hired for some very specific (and stunningly monotonous) roles along the way.
It would have been very easy for Geyrhalter to turn this film into a FAST FOOD NATION-style exposé of the meat trade, turning our stomachs with grisly shots of slaughtered livestock, but he has taken his film down a much more ambiguous and intriguing route. The camera, operated by the director, acts as an interested observer as work goes on in front of its lens, maintaining a certain distance as meat travels along the production line. Of course, the film's most explicit footage will be hard to take for some viewers. Geyrhalter doesn't spare us the sight of animals being opened up, their guts spilling out onto the floor, and one sequence in which cows are killed with a bolt to the head is particularly unnerving.
However, if you can handle that side of the film, Our Daily Bread can often be fascinating as it explores the minutiae of food production, and the repetitive nature of the footage is oddly hypnotic. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Our Daily Bread is the human element, though. We watch as various anonymous employees go about their jobs with the minimum of fuss; one woman chops trotters off dead pigs as they pass, one is assigned solely to pull apart cow stomachs, while another must tag a seemingly endless supply of chickens. If you've ever thought your job was dull and unfulfilling, then this is the film for you.
Our Daily Bread is superbly shot – the crop duster scene alone is a visually amazing coup – but it's hard to deny that the film can become tedious in places, and many viewers will probably breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to an abrupt climax. Our Daily Bread is a film full of contradictions; it's alternately beautiful and prosaic, provocative and monotonous, and Geyrhalter's refusal to editorialise or explain his footage can ultimately be seen as both a strength and a weakness. It offers a compelling look into the methods used to prepare the food we eat every day, but it leaves us unsatisfied, wanting more information and insight into these images. Only one thing can be said for certain – for better or for worse, you've never seen anything like it. |
