A Taste of Whale doesn’t really seem to have any idea which position it wants us to take on the issue at its core. That would be either (depending on your preconceived notion of the issue) the systematic murder of 700 pilot whales off the coast of the Faroe Islands, located halfway between Norway and Iceland and constituent to the country of Denmark, or the harvesting of a mammal’s meat for the benefit of an entire civilization. With his documentary, director Vincent Kelner wants to have it both ways: The Faroese people need the meat of the pilot whale to sustain themselves, and the activists who argue against what they see as mass slaughter are technically correct in their presumption that the islanders could find a different source of food if they tried.
Both sides of the argument wind up seeming a little narrow-minded, but the stranger sensation here is that, by presenting both sides of this argument, Kelner inadvertently makes a better case for the side on which, it seems, he himself does not fall. The final minutes, which shift focus onto the mass slaughter/meat production of another, equally startling mammal, make it fairly clear that Kelner wants us to think more positively of the activists’ position, despite the presence of journalists who call into question how informed those activists are. Meanwhile, we are also introduced to a motley crew of Faroese whalers and restaurateurs and the like, whose business is being threatened by the activists.
The argument of the islanders is, as stated above, that they need the meat of the pilot whale to survive. Figures like Jens Mortan Rasmussen argue in favor of their own economy, regardless of the impact on the ecology of the surrounding waters, and it’s hard not to sympathize with a people whose intentions are pure. The problem is in how Kelner will interview one of the subjects on this side of the argument, only to undercut their arguments in the next scene by showing the graphic process of culling meat (complete with a loaded music score by Marryn Jeann), or feature someone eating a prepared slab of food made from the whale’s body, followed by a long stretch spent with the activists.
As for those activists, we meet opposing figures like Lamya Essemlali, who leads an effort (potentially in direct violation of local laws) to send a firm message about opposing the slaughter of the pilot whales. At one point, even actress Pamela Anderson, who is also a noted animal-rights activist, joins a televised conference speaking on the issue at hand. The problem here is that Kelner will often depict someone on this side of the argument being questioned – and pretty comprehensively, too – and cut away before getting to the point of the exchange.
As a result, this all feels like creative grandstanding of a certain kind, and it would almost be better if Kelner had communicated a clearer position on the issue. A Taste of Whale is a loaded scenario on either end of the argument (this writer can see both sides as having pretty good points, as well as a lot of reasons to mistrust the way those points are presented). This isn’t exactly fair-minded journalism, and even though it didn’t necessarily need to be that, fairness is a basic expectation of any documentary. This movie sensationalizes in two directions.
Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment
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