SAFARI

Namibia, a lodge in the bush: European holidaymakers have come to hunt. There is the Ellinger couple, not here for the first time, and a family with two teenage children – Gerard, Eva, Manela and Tina – who take turns at the scope. Wildebeest, zebra, giraffe: after every kill comes the butchering, then the conversation about the quarry and the love of the hunt. The African staff who skin, carry and stay silent are given no voice. “Safari” (2016) by the Austrian Ulrich Seidl observes what people do when they book killing as recreation.

Ulrich Seidl of Austria, who wrote the screenplay with Veronika Franz, works with his familiar means: strictly composed tableaux, a static camera that keeps returning to mounted animal heads on the wall, and conversations in which the hunters explain themselves. The result is as complex as it is provocative – images that speak for themselves. The 91-minute documentary screened out of competition in Venice in 2016 and afterwards in Toronto; it was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2016.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive