BIG MAC SMALL WORLD

Perhaps someday golden arches will be erected on Mars. After all, the fast-food empire that is known as McDonald's has effectively conquered all four corners of the Earth, with its processed-meat burgers and taste-a-like french fries that have the same flavor whether you're in the Far East or, well, France. Peter Guyer's documentary feature is itself slightly…arch in tone, as it examines the inhabitants of Mondo McDonald's. The filmmaker's cameras visit McDonald's franchises in Las Vegas (USA), Zuchwil (Switzerland), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Jiaxing (China), Rovaniemi (Finland), and Johannesburg and Pretoria (South Africa), interviewing the polyglot proprietors and employees who have bought into the corporate dream of globalization with special sauce on a sesame-seed bun. And while this investment serves democracy to a black African businessman and personal empowerment to a young Chinese girl living outside her parents' roof, there are still limits. Among the revelations is that almost none of these folks willingly eat the Mc-meals they Mc mass-produce, but prefer the cuisine of their own cultures. The film proves that McDonald's burgers may be universal and yet still not suit all tastes. (Partially in Finnish, Mandarin, Swiss and Portugese with English subtitles)