It sounds glib to say that a film about mechanised farming provides food for thought. But that’s exactly what Nikolaus Geyrhalter sets out to do in this impossibly beautiful study of European agriculture.
Refusing to identify any locations, he presents the cavernous hothouses and battery sheds as proof of the homogenisation of consumption, reinforcing his points with shots of the lunching workers who sustain our ancient (but now tenuous) relationship with the soil. As the camera glides through sterile landscapes, Geyrhalter generates an ominous science-fiction atmosphere that robs humanity of the dignity of labour while reducing it to indolent dependence on globalised corporations. Chilling stuff.