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ICA Films
Posted: September 12th, 2008.
Special Jury Award Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival
…a world that seems to have more in common with science fiction and Kubrick than the contents of your lunchbox. Dazed and Confused
Left me speechless ****The Guardian
…chilling stuff. ****Empire
“Outstanding! Provocative! Eccentrically lovely and frequently horrifying … deserves to find an audience of hungry cinephiles.” Premiere
In a world of globalisation and mass-market consumption, Our Daily Bread is a truly evocative documentary that everyone needs towatch and digest as we are all a part of the food process. Allowing us to view the unseen and often unpalatable world of foodproduction, Our Daily Bread is at once shocking, fascinating and disturbing. If ever there was a film filled with food forthought, this is it.
Out on DVD on 8 September 2008, this third film by director Nikolaus Geyrhalter is free of commentary, characters, soundtrackand storyline, allowing the viewer to gaze in wonder and awe at how the food we take for granted ends up on our plates. This is industrial food production, plenty of everything, made quickly by a specialised few. Chicks are sorted and spunaround sterile machines, pigs trotters are cut off in seconds, whole olive trees are harvested within minutes, salmon areuniformly gutted in seconds, but cows take a bit longer.
The stunning visuals which range from absorbing and lovely to horrifying speak for themselves as indictments of the industryand its cruelty to both land and animals. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics ofthis system which provides our societys standard of living. Long, slow shots all beautifully framed and structured make thefilm hypnotic and provocative.
Our Daily Bread is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isnt always easy to digest – and in which we all take part. Itis an invitation to explore and get to the bottom of things, to look, listen and be amazed.
The DVD is released on September 8th 2008, it runs for 92 minutes and retails for £19.99,but is currently on Amazon at the link above for £14.99.
Vote and comment on this DVD: News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2008.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.