Unser täglich Brot (2005)

OUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.

Director:

Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Writers:

Nikolaus Geyrhalter (screenplay), Wolfgang Widerhofer (screenplay)

Stars:

Claus Hansen Petz, Arkadiusz Rydellek, Barbara Hinz

4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Claus Hansen Petz	...	Himself
Arkadiusz Rydellek	...	Himself
Barbara Hinz	...	Herself
Renata Wypchlo	...	Herself
Alina Wiktorska	...	Herself
Ela Kozlowska	...	Herself
Anna Bethke	...	Herself
Malgorzata Nowak	...	Herself
Halina Kosiacka	...	Herself
Tibor Korom	...	Himself
András Szarvas	...	Himself
Lies Jacobs	...	Himself
Frédéric Quinet	...	Himself
Christoph Malherbe	...	Himself
Olivier Leboutte	...	Himself

Storyline

Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting into the places where food is produced in Europe: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds - a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistic of this system which provides our society's standard of living. OUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.

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Plot Keywords:

food | dairy cow | factory worker | mass production | pig | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

KMBO [France] Official site [Austria]

Country:

Germany Austria

Language:

German Polish

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (Austria)

Also Known As:

Chlieb nás kazdodenný

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), 3Sat

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby (Synchro Film, Austria) Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.19 (2011)

User Reviews

This bread's hard to chew

The recent film "Fast Food Nation" imposes a fictional narrative onto the factual expose of Eric Schlosser's informative and horrifying book about (among other things) the industrialization of agriculture. The documentary "Our Daily Bread" makes no such concession to its audience's need for story, presenting virtually wordlessly scene after scene of modern food production in action.

It's a cliché at this point to note how modern consumers are alienated from their diets, making no connection between the plastic-wrapped pieces of muscle they purchase in the supermarket and the animals they were once part of. Still, Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter presents dozens of memorable and fascinating images, not all of them of the gross-out variety. In fact, there's even an abstract beauty to some of what we see, at least until we realize it's all part of a vast killing machine.

Difficult to sit through, "Our Daily Bread" is nonetheless an important record, invaluable for those with the courage to watch it.