Zeit der Kannibalen (2014) Reviews

• Grotesque studio theater play with great acting

  milanium862015-05-12

  The movie is categorized as drama here, but actually it is a grotesque. It is not meant to be a realistic depiction of business consulting, but exaggerating the characters and the plot. Production value is low, but the movie still works, because it fits to the message. These people are afraid to walk out of the 5 star hotel rooms in the under-developed countries they exploit for their "company" so the outside is just papier-mâché cubicles in the distance "what country is this?" - it doesn't matter. That works well, because the actors are doing an excellent job. I can only judge the German original which has some great lines especially when they speak their bad businesses English translating idioms word by word. Not sure if that can be properly localized. It is still somehow believable although the characters are clearly a caricature. Essentially it is a studio theater adapted for film with some additional effects. You don't need to see everything. Hearing screams and gunshots is enough. The scary image is created in your head. Good entertainment for the thinking man. Probably not for everyone though.

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• Interesting characters, so-so story

  Horst_In_Translation2016-02-19

  "Zeit der Kannibalen" or "Age of Cannibals" is one of the most talked about German films from 2014. It won third-best film of the year at the German Film Awards and also took home the award for Best Screenplay, which is by far the biggest career achievement so far for Stefan Weigl, who enjoyed a fairly unconventional writing career before his triumph here. The director is Johannes Naber and for him this film is so far the biggest success too. It deals with a duo of ruthless managers trying to get the best for their clients in Nigeria when a woman joins the team. The film's biggest strength were the dialogs for me, from start to finish a joy to listen to. Apart from that, I felt Sebastian Blomberg was really great to watch with the sleazy character he creates here. Katharina Schüttler is solid as always too and of course easy on the eyes. Devid Strieso did not impress me too much and I feel most of his roles look very similar, no matter if good or bad guys in terms of his mannerisms. Maybe he just does not have the greatest range. The screenplay could have been better in terms of the story and plot developments. These are certainly not on par with the acting and dialogue writing I have to say, even if there were a couple good moments. But there were bad moments too, for example a female character who is oh so disgusted by the male characters and then still sleeps with one of them? The ending is pretty brave and something that I would not really have expected. I guess the cannibals in this film are the White guys or are they really? Another question you may ask yourself in the end is who may be the most despicable of the trio. It's a very close race. This is probably not a contender for best German film of the year for me, but I still enjoyed the watch, even if it may have gotten a bit too much love from the German Film Awards and other awards bodies. A cautious thumbs up I give these 90 minutes.

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• Interesting

  ajzimmrman2015-05-26

  I think the movie was an interesting depiction of business dealings. I think it is not without surprise the writers despise capitalism..and strove to depict the people as terrible. I think there were some good lines in the film, and the ending left a knot in my stomach...which is a good thing. The setting was fairly cheaply done obviously. The acting was very good I thought. I think both sides of the spectrum had their say. I liked that. I didn't like how they all die in the end. Seeing this propaganda out of Germany only reminds me of a watered down liberal indoctrination I see in the US. I suppose that is to be expected in a more "socialized" country. I found myself feeling sorry for them in the end...

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• How do you say 'a real turkey' in German?

  rafael1052014-06-15

  I was intrigued by the trailer for this film and decided to go see it based on the rating on IMDb. What a mistake! It starts out well enough, and for the first half hour or so actually seems like it might go somewhere. Then, the plot reels out of control into a completely implausible, ethnocentric (borderline racist), fantasy of what German business consultants get up to when traveling in 'third-world' countries. The main problem is that whoever wrote the screenplay evidently has little or no experience of actual business people or the countries portrayed. The characters are puerile and two-dimensional. Their actions and reactions amount to little more than bad caricature. I felt sorry for the actors, who struggle to make the characters believable and sometimes even succeed. The trouble is the screenplay, as well as some pretty poor decisions regarding production design (particularly the use of abstract backdrops to represent the cityscape outside hotel windows). This only reinforces the impression that you're watching a theatre play that has been poorly adapted into a film.

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• Another among the very few good German movies.

  age2.12016-09-30

  Most of the German movies are unbearably bad. Thats because the German cinema is without any vision or braveness. We (i am German) do have good cameramen and good lighting, perhaps even good stories. But the execution is mostly suffocated by the cancer that's impersonated by the public media (oeffentlich-rechtlich) dictate. Most of the good German movies come from Austria, also. So they're technically not even German. But there are a few, like a handful of good directors in Germany, like Detlev Buck, who seems to have lost his teeth a while ago, and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck or Michael Haneke. Vicco von Bülow was our pendant to Woody Allen, but lacked depth and output. Helge Schneider made a very nice movie together with true genius Christoph Schlingensief. Peter Thorwarth made one brilliant movie. But most of the German movies, let me repeat this, are just poor and weak in so many aspects. So i congratulate Johannes Naber - you made it! A very nice Zeitgeist movie with a slow but nasty suspense. Acting and Language that has the right view on Germans - not wishful thinking. Very well chosen sound. For me it made the 7+1. Actually the movie "No Escape" seems to pick up something from this one - if i got the release dates right. I will not hesitate to recommend this to my friends and will surely add it to my "special" top 50. Thanks for capturing my full attention!

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