Movie Review: The Tasters is a Unique, Surprising, and Impressive Drama

Directed by: Silvio Soldini

Written by: Silvio Soldini and others

Starring: Elisa Schlott, Max Riemelt, Alma Hasun

Film Review by: William Hemingway

★★★★

During World War II, a group of young women are taken from their small town in the German countryside, and invited to sit at Hitler’s tasting table, where they try all of the Führer’s food before he does, in order to ensure that it has not been poisoned.

Rosa Sauer (Schlott) has come to live with her parents-in-law in rural Germany. It’s 1943 and Rosa has up until now been living in Berlin, but at the request of her husband, who is fighting somewhere over on the Russian front, she has gone to live with his parents to stay away from the bombing. It’s not long though before there’s a knock at the door, and wouldn’t you know it, the Nazis are there demanding that she come with them. Nazis don’t like explaining themselves, and so when Rosa is slammed in the back of a van along with all the other young women in the community, none of them know what is going on or what their fate might be.

As it happens, nearby is the Führer’s bunker; his hidden secret base, his temporary centre of command, the Wolf’s Lair; and whilst there, he needs some innocents to taste his food for him, so that the ring of protection around him remains airtight. The women are brought in, kept for three meals a day, and an hour afterwards to ensure that no one has been poisoned, and they are paid for their service. Naturally, after the first few tentative bites and the agony of waiting, this ritual becomes routine, perhaps even enjoyable, as the chef prepares exquisite dishes with tastes never before dreamed of by the young women. However, their shared lives and their shared time with those close to the Nazi high command bring them closer to danger than any poisoned food ever could.

The Tasters Trailer

Adapted from the novel, At The Wolf’s Table by Rosella Postorino, and inspired by the real-life tale of a survivor who only revealed in 2012 that this band of women did, in fact, exist, director Silvio Soldini, along with a team of screenwriters, gives us a reimagining of just how this intriguing scenario might have looked and felt, in The Tasters. A cross-production, mainly from Italy but with Belgian and Swiss backing, too, Soldini is trusted at the helm to deliver a strong, moving portrayal of a delicate situation, which also has such deep and brutal undercurrents that must come to the fore. In this way, The Tasters aims for such recent European triumphs as Ida (2013), Cold War (2018), and The Zone Of Interest (2023) in how it tries to capture the everyday humanity that exists alongside the utter brutality of how the Nazis conducted their war, although Soldini never quite matches the intricate, dizzying heights of Pawlikowski or Glazer in his cinematic vision.

Still, as an indie production, The Tasters is as close as you can get to all-out European cinema. The story builds, and the characters are drawn in as we progress through the narrative. The ensemble of the young women and the Nazi soldiers are all given their time to shine and be known in their own way, with each personality and idiosyncrasy aired and named as we get to know them. The main centrepiece of the tasting table is imposing and dominant in-frame, with the chef coming as a cleansing accoutrement for the palate in his openness and warmth, while the insistence of the regime is always front and centre to remind us of the constant surrounding danger. The acting is superb from everyone, with emotion coming through in spades, even when your eye is drawn to the subtitles to decipher the dialogue, and everything feels totally right for the time and place that we are in.

With Soldini at the helm, moving the camera through some tight situations to help us live and interact with the characters as though we were there, alongside cinematographer Renato Berta, keeping everything gritty and real in the dirt of the countryside and clean and pristine in the kitchen and dining room, and composer Mauro Pagani serving up some imposing classical music to accompany the themes and events of the scenario, The Tasters has everything behind it in the technical details to stand it out as a quality production.

You have to know what you’re getting into with The Tasters, as it’s two hours of solid Nazi drama, with a feminist edge, and is therefore probably best reserved for when those tastes are likely to be recognised and savoured. However, once you sit down at the table and are ready to be served some unique, surprising, and impressive drama, The Tasters delivers it all with a side order of realism and a stein of cold, filtered humanity.

The Tasters will be available in UK & Irish cinemas from 13th March.