‘Caniba - Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel’

Caniba reflects on the discomforting significance of cannibalistic desire in human existence through the prism of one Japanese man, Issei Sagawa, and his mysterious relationship with his brother, Jun Sagawa. A haunting portrait of a life steeped in infamy.

Sorbonne student Issei Sagawa was arrested in Paris in 1981 after being seen dumping two bloody suitcases containing the remains of his classmate, Renée Hartevelt — whom he had killed and begun to eat. Declared unfit for trial, he was released after two years in a French clinic and returned to Japan. Ostracized, he profited from his crime through books, manga, and film appearances. 

Véréna Paravel is a filmmaker, visual anthropologist, and artist. From 2006 to 2023, she collaborated with Lucien Castaing-Taylor at Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab. Together, they made Leviathan, Somniloquies, Caniba (2017 - Venice Film Festival - Orizzonti Special Jury Prize), and De Humani Corporis Fabrica, creating bold, non-anthropocentric cinema. Their work has been shown at major festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, etc.), and in institutions such as MoMA, the Venice Biennale, documenta 14, the Centre Pompidou, and Tate Modern.