THE CANNIBAL CLUB

Brazil, 2018, 82 minutes, Colour.

Tavinho Teixera, Ana Luiza Rios, Pedro Dominguez, José Maria Alves.

Directed by Guto Parente.

The title is very direct and the film is a portrait of a cannibal club. This is not a film for the wide audience. Rather, this is a satirical look at affluent societies, their seclusion in their self-satisfied world, pandering to their every whim, victimising and disdaining the rest of the world.

The director is noted for satire as well as for some graphic representation of his themes. And this is the case here, ugly scenes of murders, some graphic sexual sequences, and the distasteful (literally) presentation of meals and banquets of cannibalised human flesh.

The film is brief, making its points, intending shock moments.

The focus is on the couple, well off, living in a mansion, a staff, a boy at the pool who is later killed after a sexual encounter with the wife and becomes their meal. And there is the cannibal club, presided over by a wealthy businessman, scenes of very well-dressed elderly men (women excluded) having the cannibal meals and watching sexual activities and proclaiming moralistic stances.

The crisis comes when the head of the club is caught by the wife in a homosexual encounter – and their lives are in danger. They hire another pool boy with the same intentions – but, it ends with his turning the tables and eliminating the president and the husband and wife.

And, there you have it. Reviewers refer to Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Eating Raoul, the Hannibal Lecter films and television series. (In googling best cannibal films, a list of 144 titles appears, many exploitation films, many horror films.)