Photo still from the movie Our Daily Bread. Photo: http://www.ourdailybread.at

Simply allowing authentic workplace acoustics to serve as the soundtrack, the film effectively positions the viewer inside the killing fields of assorted futuristic slaughterhouses as an almost involuntary eyewitness to the callous butchery. Our Daily Bread graphically depicts, not merely death, but the mistreatment doled out to these unfortunate factory animals at every stage of their lifecycles.

What could be more shocking than to see a baby calf birthed, not from its mother’s womb, but from a gaping, man-made hole arbitrarily gouged in the cow’s side? Maybe the sight of baby chicks being jettisoned out of pneumatics tubes at breakneck speed onto conveyor belts that then drop the bewildered newborns into crates, which, in turn, cart them off to another equally mechanized, indoor environment for fattening.

Then, there are the scenes of fish, hogs and cattle being shuttled to their fates, to be drawn and quartered assembly line-style, with their carcasses carefully hacked away in a fully-automated process that makes use of virtually every bit of their bodies besides the tail. The few employees featured in the film have deadened eyes that ostensibly reflect their having long since capitulated spiritually to their soul-draining line of work. None exhibits even an ounce of compassion for any of the creatures in their care.

Our Daily Bread also devotes its attention to the present-day, antiseptic approach to agriculture, depicting the goings-on inside airport hangar-size greenhouses where fruits and vegetables are grown entirely under artificial light and sprayed with pesticides by what resembles astronauts in protective jumpsuits and headgear outfitted with gasmasks.

With wide-angle panoramas every bit as beautiful as Koyaansqatsi (1982), Our Daily Bread does that cautionary environmental classic one better, because it evokes a sense of urgency in the audience rather than allowing us to remain aloof. Thus, as un-indicted co-conspirators in an ethical compromise of unthinkable proportions, the picture prods you to prevent agri-business from leading the planet down a path to complete moral and ecological collapse.

For, if we have already rationalized treating plants and animals in this awful fashion, it couldn’t possibly be that big a jump to turn a deaf ear to the implementation of mass genocide.

A most perturbing experience guaranteed to haunt you for meals to come.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 92 minutes