Saturday 16 December 2023

Zeit der Kannibalen (1 Star)


The film's title, literally translated, is "The Time of the Cannibals". No, there aren't actually any cannibals in it. The title refers to the greed of capitalism which eats up the little man.

Kai Niederländer and Frank Öllers are two businessmen who travel around the world, rarely leaving their hotel rooms. They're business consultants who advise their clients on how to make more money, mostly by producing goods in poor countries where the wages are low. Their opinions are taken seriously, and if they disapprove of an enterprise the reactions are extreme. I assume that their opinions can decide whether investors put money into companies or not.

Their colleague Hellinger should have been with them, but he's absent from the current trip. At first they think he's been promoted, but they later discover that he's committed suicide. His replacement is Bianca März, a woman who's only been with their company for five weeks. They don't trust her.

I've read reviews that highly praise the film, calling it one of the best German films for years. I don't understand why. I was struggling with the film from the first minutes. I couldn't understand what the director was trying to say. "Capitalism is bad"? That's a message that could have been told in a more entertaining film. The claustrophobia of every scene taking place in hotel rooms doesn't help the story. There were occasional jokes that made me chuckle, but then the film settled back down in its dull pace.

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