No amount of content warnings can prepare audiences for this unconventional and viscerally disturbing documentary about Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa.

In Caniba, the facts of the murder case that brought Sagawa international infamy in 1981 are detailed by the man himself. Filmed often in extreme close-up following a stroke, Issei lives with his brother Jun after being ostracised from society in his homeland of Japan. Here, Sagawa attempts to explain his crimes while detailing his subsequent career writing novels, drawing manga and even filming pornography inspired by the story.

Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti Special Jury Prize, Caniba is far removed from the earlier works of Harvard Sensory Ethnographic Lab colleagues Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel (Leviathan, MIFF 2012). It nonetheless shares a similar unbridled sense of discovery and probing curiosity of the many corners of our world. There is imagery alluded to in Caniba that will shock and unsettle viewers, but this confronting film allows audiences into a previously unseen life.

Contains high-impact themes and sexual references