‘Barbecue’ is More Than Meat

Fire and meat. It’s a tale just shy of time and one that brings us all together. People huddled around the flames, cooking kills, telling stories and passing their precise methods on to their children who, even amidst the advent of then unfathomable indoor cooking technology, will continue to go out, make fires and grill meat.

In ‘Barbecue’ (2017), a documentary currently streaming on Netflix, Australian filmmakers Rose Tucker and Matthew Salleh zoom in on this global tradition.

Journeying to 12 countries in five months, the documentary begins in South Africa where boerewors, lamb chops and shisanyama sizzle on grills in affluent white owned homes while in the townships braais can become big business.

A series of vignettes exploring the barbecue culture in Japan where street and five-star yakitori is carefully tended over bincho¯-tan (white charcoal) while Swedes celebrate the return of the sun with hotdogs grilled quickly on their disposable aluminum Engangsgrill, ‘Barbecue’ showcases hot rock marmot cooking in Mongolia, expounds on the art of cooking lechon in the Philippines while Armenians show off their khorovats sampled with vodka and often plagued by unsolicited culinary advisors.

Heartwarming in its stop at a refugee camp on the border of the Syria and Jordan border where a shawarma restaurant has managed to spring up amidst the uncertainty, ‘Barbecue’ is about meat but it’s also about people.

The Texan who considers the amount of animals that die to fill their daily orders so makes sure to cook them with respect and to the best of his ability. A Mexican mother who sells goat barbacoa the way her grandfather taught her and the Maori who sweat over their ha¯ngi¯’ as a labour of love and preservation of culture.

A communal affair in Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand and seemingly all across the world, in ‘Barbecue’, these traditions of meat and fire are part of the very fabric of society.

Primal engagements in which bonds of family and friendship are stoked and renewed.

Not to be watched hungry and featuring some graphic depictions of animals being cooked and prepared, ‘Barbecue’, with its orchestral score and focus on what we share, is a little of what we need these days.

Something easy, educational and strangely uplifting.

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