Our Daily Bread (2005 film)

Our Daily Bread is a 2005 Austrian documentary film directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. The film offers a stark, observational look at the industrialized food production system in Europe.

The film avoids narration or commentary, presenting instead a series of meticulously composed, often unsettling, scenes of modern agriculture and food processing. It depicts various stages of production, from vast fields of crops being harvested by massive machinery to automated animal slaughterhouses and processing plants. The focus is on the scale and efficiency of the operations, often highlighting the dehumanizing aspects of the process.

The film's silence and lack of explicit judgment allows viewers to draw their own conclusions about the ethical and environmental implications of industrialized agriculture. It aims to provoke reflection on the origins of the food we consume and the methods employed to produce it. The subject matter includes but is not limited to: grain harvesting, pig farming, cattle farming, vegetable cultivation, and food packaging.

Our Daily Bread has been screened at numerous film festivals and has been praised for its visual style and its ability to spark debate about food production practices. It is often categorized as a slow cinema documentary due to its deliberate pacing and long takes.