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Cannibal Tours is a 1988 quasi-documentary film by Australian director and cinematographer Dennis O'Rourke. The film follows a group of Western tourists as they tour the villages of the Iatmul people along the Sepik river in Papua New Guinea. Interviews with both tourist and Iatmul concerning the lifestyles of the other are intercut throughout. Critics have noted the twin meaning meant by the title, referring to both the bygone practices of the Papuans and the cultural consumption of the Western tourists.

Background
O’Rourke credits witnessing a group of wealthy tourists buying artifacts from the native people in a Papua New Guinean village called Angoram as the inspiration for this film. He described it as a “surreal moment that represents something about the clash between the East and the West and the way that we fail to understand each other,” an essential theme he felt underlied all of his films up to that point. The working title for the film was Society Expeditions.

O'Rourke has written of the film: "I like to think of “Cannibal Tours” not so much as a film about the negative effect of mass tourism on fragile cultures, which should be obvious to everybody; but more as a philosophical meditation set in the milieu of this kind of tourism. The film is much more about the whole notion of 'the primitive' and 'the other', the fascination with primitivism in Western culture and the wrong-headed nostalgia for the innocence of Eden."

Summary
The film opens with the epigraph: "There is nothing so strange, in a strange land, as the stranger who comes to visit it."

A German tourist talks about the German colonization of the area. An Iatmul man shows him a stone monument in the middle of a field where victims of cannibalism were once sacrificed.

On the tour boat, a group of German tourists discuss the native diet over breakfast. Outside on the deck, Italians are asked what they think of the native people. They describe the their lifestyle as "primitive" but note that "experts assure us they are satisfied."

In an interview with an older Iatmul man, he recounts how the people of his parents' generation reacted to the arrival of the Europeans, believing them to be their dead ancestors returning home. Papuans still playfully say "The dead have returned!" when they encounter tourists. "We don't seriously believe [it]," he says "but we do say it!"

The tour group is shown in a village market, haggling with the villagers and comparing their souvenirs. Between these scenes, an old Iatmul woman is interviewed voicing her displeasure at the tourists for not buying enough. An older Iatmul man complains about the tourists' practice of asking for "second price." "When I go to those big shops in the town I can't buy things for 'second price' or 'third price,'" he says.

There are several scenes of various tourists photographing the native people. In between, both Iatmul and tourists are interviewed on the subject of cannibalism. The Iatmul cannot understand why the tourists love to take photographs so much, but they have accepted the practice because they profit from it, such as by charging tourists to take photographs in the spirit house.

The German tourist muses about how to help those who "live in such a primitive way." "The task is to share our wealth," he concludes. Two Iatmul question why the tourists have so much money and they have so little. The Italians theorize a need to "bring them some values and convictions...to educate and stimulate them to behave differently."

The final scene depicts the tour group clad in mask-like face paint and dancing. Several of the men are shirtless and some people carry their native-made souvenirs. One man poses for the camera in a boxer's stance.

Reception
Rolf Potts has pointed out the unintentionally comedic nature of the film: “Its more memorable scenes have a cringe-inducing quality that calls to mind the delicious discomfort of watching Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Office.”