Our Daily Bread
Fri Nov 20th, 2009 – 10:51
From Our Daily Bread
I'm guessing that a 90-minute documentary about industrial food production is probably not at the top of your movie list at the moment, but this one should be. Despite having no narrative structure and no voiceover, Our Daily Bread, directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter is visually stunning and surprisingly engaging.
The star of the film is industry itself '" impossibly fast production lines of animals, gigantic machines that spray acres of crops and endless greenhouses that flood produce with 24hr light. Humans play a minor role, weeding out the rare imperfections in the machine's work.
Geyrhalter frames his subject matter with a perfectly symmetrical and objective eye whether it's the beauty of a salt mine or the barbarism of an abattoir. We are left to our own conclusions about food production but it's impossible not to feel both impressed and revolted at how efficient and unnatural it has become.