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SOUTH MOVIE: Not particularly edible cannibal portrait

caniba
Harvard University's laboratory for sensory ethnography has documented the cannibal Issei Sagawa and his masochistic brother Jun.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Historically, cannibalism has been the source of as many clues as fact-based stories. As a result, it may not be surprising that the theme periodically emerges in fiction films (and then preferably atrocities) – from the notorious "video nasty" of the 1980. Cannibal Holocaust via the psychological thriller Nattsvermeren to last year's Cannes talk ice cream Raw.

Magically-religiously motivated. When humans have actually eaten their species friends, there has rarely been a need to quench their hunger. It has usually been a ceremonial magico-religious act with the goal of acquiring certain qualities such as courage and strength from the person you devour, or getting in touch with the divine.

In line with this serve caniba well-known Bible verse in its estimate. Specifically, the Gospel of John 6,53 and 6,56, where Jesus says to the Jews, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the body of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have not life in you" and "Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him ”.

Ate fellow student. First of all, the film presents a comprehensive text poster about the crime that made Japanese Issei Sagawa famous, and the circumstances that made him a free man a few years later. In 1981, while studying at Sorbonne in Paris, he invited his 25-year-old Dutch co-student Renée Hartevelt home to read poetry. The plan, however, was to kill and then eat this woman he desired, which he then carried out. In addition, he raped the body before he began to party it.

caniba consists almost exclusively of extreme close-ups, but we never really get into the two people the movie is about.

After trying to get rid of parts of her body in a park, police quickly got on the track of Sagawa – who immediately admitted the killing. In his apartment, the police not only found several body parts in the freezer, but also leftovers after a meal prepared by the victim's meat.

Sagawa was declared insane and returned to Japan for admission to a psychiatric hospital. In his home country, on the other hand, he was diagnosed as mentally healthy, and with the help of his resourceful father, he was never brought to justice. Sagawa achieved some celebrity status for his heinous crime, which he later made a living: He has written books and manga series about his story, he has starred in pornographic films (!) And he has written restaurant reviews (!!).

Different documentary. Several documentaries about Sagawa have also been made previously. Without knowing these in depth, I still feel confident that none of them are similar caniba. This film is directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel of Harvard University's Laboratory of Sensory Ethnography, who previously made the documentary Leviathan (2012). Here, they depicted a fishing skate in the North Atlantic through a plethora of GoPro cameras located most places on the boat, even underwater. The result was a demanding film without dialogue or traditional narrative structure, which just as completely provided a fascinating and very sensual experience of the harsh conditions of such a fishing trip.

caniba consists in turn almost exclusively of extreme close-ups of the aging and now also physically ill Issei Sagawa, as well as his brother Jun, filmed in their cramped apartment in Japan. On the soundtrack, we hear Issei tell of his fetishistic sexual attraction to human flesh, and also the brother's interpretations of his more conventional (all is relatively known!) Masochism. In the middle of the film, we also see a collection of footage from their seemingly happy childhood (as well as some pornographic footage – possibly with Issei?). However, it is difficult to say whether the two brothers' differing sexual inclinations are due to inheritance or the environment, all the time they have grown up together. But: If he wasn't born that way, Jun has at least gotten that early – he has apparently found pleasure in hurting himself from the age of three.

Close and distant. In any case, the film is not particularly concerned with providing any explanations. In its absence of traditional narrative grips caniba close and distant at the same time. It is close in a specific sense – with its close-up of the brothers' faces moving in and out of focus. But it is also distanced in that we never really get into the two people the film is about. Instead, I get the impression that the filmmakers want to focus on the fetishistic aspect and confront us with our own almost fetishistic fascination for this kind of morbid stories and human destinies.

It is obvious that the filmmakers do not want to entertain this tragic and grotesque story.

This also creates a problematic two-sidedness in this film, not to mention double standards. Admittedly, it is a fair thing that the filmmakers will not understand Issei Sagawa on death and life, and with the risk that the film will be a kind of excuse for his extreme wrongdoing. (The aforementioned, introductory text poster also states that the film does not want to justify the crime.) But Sagawa does not necessarily want to be understood either. Perhaps out of self-contempt, perhaps also as a myth, he consistently portrays himself as a monster. Although the ambition is never so much to challenge our attraction to the forbidden and morbid, the film is in danger of building up under the same fascination – and building up under the mythification Sagawa himself wants.

Unnecessary details. Extremely clear becomes this ethical dilemma when the filmmaker lets the protagonist show a cartoon, in which he has portrayed his crime in great detail. It must be hard enough for Renée Hartevelt's survivors to know that this manga exists, unless the film gives it even more publicity.

To further point out the popular culture's fascination with cannibalism in general and Issei Sagawa in particular, concludes caniba with The Stranglers' song "La Folie" – which is about just Sagawa. Contrary to contemporary wave of "true crime" documentaries, Castaing-Taylor and Parave have obviously not wanted to entertain this tragic and grotesque story. But they have also not contributed to it being somewhat less mythical.

The movie is shown on Movies from the South 9.-19.november

Aleksander Huser
Aleksander Huser
Huser is a regular film critic in Ny Tid.

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