Days of Cannibalism (Teboho Edkins, 2020) (Patreon)

While watching films for the Visions du Réel festival, I caught Teboho Edkins' medium-length documentary Shepherds, which, like Days of Cannibalism, examines on conditions in the enclaved nation of Lesotho. (Edkins himself is South African.) Both films emphasize the importance of ranching in the small African nation, but while Shepherds is remarkably focused, interviewing farmers, cattle rustlers, and assorted experts who extol the necessity of owning cattle in Lesotho, the virtual equation of cows with survival and prestige.

By contrast, Days of Cannibalism is a more broadly based, "open form" documentary that is, generally speaking, about the culture clash between native Basotho and a new wave of Chinese immigrants who are establishing a heretofore nonexistent merchant class. Edkins hardly romanticizes the traditions of Lesotho culture, which is crippled by poverty and crime. But Days of Cannibalism does seem to give the impression that Chinese capitalists, with their ruthlessness and disregard for any value apart from the bottom line, are coming in to exploit a nation too underdeveloped to resist its overtures. 

Like too many documentaries these days, Days of Cannibalism is content to make these "arguments" by implication and juxtaposition, never really coming forward with its actual thesis. This is bothersome, not just because, in Shepherds, Edkins has demonstrated the capacity to produce a more obviously argumentative kind of film. But in so many contemporary nonfiction features, "China" has become a catch-all metonym for rapacious hyper-capitalism, as if the dangers of the profit motive represented a new form of "yellow peril." 

Granted, exposing the ills of Chinese capitalism is easy because, unlike Western or Russian models, there is little in the way of public relations. Nevertheless, it's hard not to feel as if films like Days of Cannibalism play into liberal prejudices of the festival circuit in a fairly self-congratulatory way. This attitude, combined with the seemingly non-directive nature of such docs -- "here's a bunch of stuff, you draw your own conclusions" -- can make for unenlightening viewing.