Not all corporate skewering is created equal. Workplace bungles and bureaucratic blunders present targets aplenty, as does the savagery and greed of modern business dealings; however, there’s a difference between simply shining a light on the type of antics now frequently mined by films and television programs for comedic purposes, and using a movie or show as a magnifying glass to burn a satirical hole through devious, underhanded and ruthless behaviour.
Despite Age of Cannibals (Zeit der Kannibalen) boasting a name that sounds suited to the latter camp, drawing attention to the competitive, dog-eat-dog nature of the environment the story is set within, it is in the former category that the film falls. As directed by Johannes Naber (The Albanian) and written by Stefan Weigl (TV’s The Travels of the Young Marco Polo), the comic take on consultants boasts ample material and a hearty embrace of the absurdities of employment. What it also possesses in abundance is contentment with merely stating the obvious.
Frank Öllers (Devid Striesow, We Are Young. We Are Strong.) and Kai Niederländer (Sebastian Blomberg, Berlin Telegram) are highly paid, long-term partners in travelling the globe and telling other organisations how to run their businesses, though not-so-friendly taunting and teasing over their personal problems is also part of their working rapport. Their continual attempts to best each other manifest in their rivalry over a promotion, one that goes to a colleague instead. Cue professional disappointment, followed by burying their frustration in doing what they do best. Then the successful duo is joined by the young and ambitious Bianca März (Katharina Schüttler, Amour fou), yet another threat to their potential climb up the corporate ladder, just as deals start to go bad and coinciding with their latest developing-world destination being thrown into turmoil.
Bickering and bantering is what sustains Age of Cannibals‘ 93 minutes, in what amounts to little more than pushing and shoving – typically verbally rather than physically – transformed into a feature-length script. In trying to offer up an indictment of the worst that capitalism can incite, the film finds its argumentative groove and sticks to it, supposedly in the name of black comedy. Reducing the central trio not just to despicable people doing dastardly things with the slightest of justifications for their actions, but to their basest animal instincts, certainly gets the movie’s point across; yet, even with clever lines peppering the dialogue and the three lead performances hitting the high-strung mark, that’s the only real observation the feature imparts.
Where the lone note Naber and Weigl attempt to sustain in their anti-corporate messaging is served best is in aesthetic choices, confining the action to a series of hotel rooms, and casting the imagery in as sleek and shiny a glow as possible. With realism never a goal, it is exaggeration that reigns – and that such an outlandish display is so overtly staged feels like part of the film’s joke. In fact, Age of Cannibals is wheeling and dealing as much as its characters, which might be why it comes across as just as empty. There’s flash and fire in this take on those very components of business, but – maybe mirroring much of modern working life – nothing else.
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Age of Cannibals (Zeit der Kannibalen)
Director: Johannes Naber
Germany, 2014, 93 mins
Audi Festival of German Films
www.goethe.de
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