Brilliant provocateur Ulrich Seidl again turns his camera on his fellow Austrians on holiday. This time, he’s on safari at a white-owned ranch in Namibia. Even the most tender father-son moments look sinister through Seidl’s lens, as an athletic Austrian couple in their early 40s hunt beautiful rare creatures with their teenage children. Building the film from his trademark eccentric tableaus and interviews, Seidl documents disturbing sequences on the hunt; a local white rancher drinking himself into a stupor in a bird-watching hut and meticulous scenes of Namibian ranch-hands processing furs and heads for the tourists to take home as the trophies from the hunt. Anyone distressed by disregard for rare and endangered animals’ lives be warned. Liberal viewer bias is readily admitted here, but Safari is extraordinary – a chilling observation of the most insidious white privilege. Disturbing, yes. But fascinating nonetheless.
Dir-Prod Ulrich Seidl
Scr Ulrich Seidl, Veronika Franz
Austria-Denmark 2016
91mins
Sales Coproduction Office
Screenings
Tuesday 11 October 2016 18:30,
ICA Cinema, Screen 1
Saturday 15 October 2016 18:15,
Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Screen 1
