BERLINALE 2020 - Days of Cannibalism
70th BERLINALE FILM FESTIVALTeboho Edkins' Days of Cannibalism is a composite documentary/narrative feature that explores racial and ideological tension between local Lesotho cattle herder natives and Chinese entrepreneurs scathing the land for opportunity.
Fly on the wall is the perfect analogy for Edkins' film. Shot in the same vein as a documentary but with a silent narrator and invisible guide instead, it is framed as a narrative feature. By doing so, Days of Cannibalism offers quite the experience to witness these racial tensions organically and authentically – experiencing the events that unfold, as if the audience were there, in all its aggressive build up in a brewing pot of venom and industrialism. Observing this boiling pot of tension and atmosphere slowly but surely amounting into a harrowing and traumatic experience, the poor town folk inaugurating in small moments of defiance and slowly progressing to rising against this corporate machine and populace is all magnificently captured in its force and horror by Edkins' and cinematographer Samuel Lahu.
Both of whom unravel this discourse by crafting intimate and personal instances of authoritarian damage done by globalism. For what seems like small and pointless moments of ignorance are personal and nightmarish abuses of power; seeing both sides of the conundrum offers a more heartbreaking and intense atmosphere as the heat rises. The inevitable build-up does so with a wicked and tragic burn, affecting both sides of the story in a heartbreaking but captivating narrative.
Days of Cannibalism is a more in-depth, intimate and haunting feature than it gives itself credit as. A dark and terror fuelled drama, expertly crafted in an organic manner of a documentarian eye that reveals the strange and often tragic paths of mankind.
