Age of Cannibals

Age of Cannibals / Zeit der Kanibalen, 2014

Director: Johannes Naber

Color, 96', Bluray

Johannes Naber’s “Age of Cannibals”, which premiered in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of this year’s Berlinale, is a ruthless black comedy about capitalism. Frank and Kai are two successful investment consultants who for years have been spending their days traveling and in luxury hotel rooms. They persuade their clients that the economies of various poor countries in Asia, Africa or the Middle East are actually developing, thus wasting their time with investments that will have no buyers. In other words, Frank and Kai are two charlatans who have aligned their activities with the capitalist system. They have no emotional attachment either to the countries they travel to, nor their clients or even their families. The sole aim of life for these two men who love nothing but money and success is to become partner in the company they work for. One day, the company sends a third employee to join them. Bianca, an idealist young woman, soon becomes a threat for the little kingdom that Frank and Kai have set up in their hotel rooms. More panic ensues when their supervisor expected to make partner in the company commits suicide, and a civil war breaks out in the country where they are at the time. This grotesque comedy, which has no interest in propriety, makes some striking observations related to the fall of capitalism.