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CANIBAL 2014-A SPANISH PREMIERE ENTRY AT KARLOVY VARY

Cannibalism is not an established behavioural disorder that belongs to a specific subculture or
perhaps a sectarian religious movement.
It is an isolated and very rare mental disease that has no genetic or spiritual background, and its
genesis and origins are related to specific pagan rituals of idol warship that were practised in early
religious cults that were popular in early tribal societies.
Cannibalism has found its roots in early and rudimentary tribal communities at beginning of
civilisation when provision of a sacrificial victim was paramount to the rituals of religious warship
and the very first houses of warship were indeed altars for provision of sacrifice to the Gods.
Early religion was mostly defined thru the delivery and provision of a sacrifice in order to please and
demonstrate obedience and submission to the Gods.
It was therefore substantial that a victim is sacrificed in the Temple altar and thru the ritual of
prostration the faithful would demonstrate their dedication and surrender to the Gods.
One of the most famous and well known acts of sacrifice is indeed child sacrifice that is considered
the ultimate act of Love and Fear of God.
One of The Holy Bibles most interesting stories from the Old Testament is exactly the Abrahams
near sacrifice of his son Isaac that was supposed to have taken place on the very spot where
Salomons Temple would be built later on.
Jesus Christ is indeed called the Lamb of God, as it is generally anticipated that God has sacrificed his
own firstborn to pay for all the Sins of humanity.
In Christian contemporary liturgy and modern rituals we still have an elaborate custom of tasting the
Body of Christ, which bares strong resemblance to Cannibalism and the references as well as the
pagan influence is more than obvious.
And of course, there always is the existential Cannibalism that is purely inspired out of necessity and
the basic temptation to survive and encounter this bizarre challenge and obstacle out of the way.
Cannibalism is almost obsolete today, with the exception of isolated events and incidents that are
not related to and do not consist of regularly occurring event or a ritual with consistency or
continuity of any kind.
Back to our film story, that has a contemporary setting in a small coastal town in Spain; our main
protagonist is a lone and single adult male who is the well-known village Taylor.
We would obviously expect a substantial knowledge for the external human anatomy by our well
known Taylor of handmade suits; however Im not entirely persuaded of the relationship between
Medicine and the previous.
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It has left me a little bit bewildered of the suggestion that a Taylor must know very well how to bone
a human flesh and be able to prepare very well steak fillets out of mans meat; however, in actual
fact it contributes even more to the bizarre and out of the ordinary story.
The only other protagonist is a young female, a Romanian young lady, who actually acts both herself
as well as her own twin sister who is her identical sibling and looks almost the same with the small
minor exceptions only visible and noticeable with difficulty.
Cannibal observes an outwardly perfectly normal individual who seems extremely introvert and
profoundly maniacal and violent, living in this borderline state of mind, isolated and excluded from
socialising and any kind of normal mainstream social life and activity.
He is alone but very pleased with himself and content, he is single but not desperate for a partner or
a relationship, he is calm and has a non-aggressive appearance yet he is profoundly evil and
relentless in his pursuit of his victims he kills to eat!
He is the embodiment and personification of Lucifer in a deeply devout and religious Catholic village
in Spain, and one of his regular clients is the local Church that gives him the noble task of restoring
an old piece of fabric that covers a small statue of the mother Mary during a popular local religious
festival, that is an event very popular with tourists.
A big moral dilemma develops right there where the Taylor actually hesitates and is not entirely
persuaded that he should be the one to restore the piece of garment worn by the scaled down
statue of the Virgin and Jesus.
The two twin sisters are outwardly identical, but could not be any more different as characters and
have completely incompatible personalities.
Murder has always been the ultimate Sin, and the notion of committing this Sin as a punishment for
the subjects previous Sins is somewhat contradicting in itself.
Obviously, I could not find any more justification or perhaps a reason for the Taylors passion for
eating his victims, and apart from the fact that it contributes to his totally abnormal character,
theres no missing link, no reference, no associations or metaphors of any kind.
It is regularly reiterated and emphasised thru the film that one could become a sophisticated killing
machine, should one find enough motivation and will to do it, however theres absolutely no
explanation for the Taylors bizarre appetite for human flesh.
The film is bold, not very memorable an uneventful, and I still struggle to find a reason or perhaps a
connection of some sort between his killings and his urge for human flesh.
Despite of the wish to grow the characters in depth, the story is too poor to justify the character
research, and in whole I think the film has been badly put together
Im still left with the conclusion that one has become a cannibal completely at random and it just
does not add up into the film narrative, not a memorable film by all accounts
The love triangle is obsolete and is not fit for purpose in this story just as well, overall, poor film
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