THE CAKEMAKER, love story, sweet Review

For his first film, THE CAKEMAKER, the israeli director Ofir Raul Graizer door a beautiful look on the tolerance by telling a story of love outside the norm.

THE CAKEMAKER, the first film by israeli director Ofir Raul Graizer begins surprisingly in Berlin, and his characters express themselves in German. Thomas (Tim Kahlkof) and Oren (Roy Miller) are lovers, and to see when travel to Oren. But it is not here in the pathos or the fits of jealousy. There is no other issue between them that their love is tender and respectful during these few stolen days. Not exhortation, not on the part of Thomas for that Oren left his family.

Because Oren lives in Jerusalem with his wife Anat and their little boy Itary. Oren tells without taboo to Thomas his life with his loved ones, while eating the cupcakes that the young pastry chef has prepared for him. He brings even still to his wife of delicious cookies. It is probably easier for Po to live freely his bisexuality in Germany rather than in the country ultra-orthodox. Ofir Raul Graizer shoots very well-the sweetness and the sensuality of the relationship between the two men, giving THE CAKEMAKER the same character of modesty observed in Call me by your name.

But everything collapses when Thomas learns that Oren died in a car accident in Jerusalem. Thomas, even in this city where the language, the culture and the religion are unknown. Is it to be closer to the body of Oren? Or to do his work of mourning? Or even to know how to relate Anat and Itai, in which he lived of the facts and acts by proxy? But is it possible to make its mourning of a love kept secret, that we can share? And how to express his grief without revealing himself and without hurting the environment?

THE CAKEMAKER is a beautiful, intimate drama that warms the heart

The response of THE CAKEMAKER is not that given in the more exuberant The Woman fantastic, which dealt with a subject close. Here, nothing is said or claimed, but everything is subtly suggested. Because Thomas does not express its feelings with words. He says everything with his hands, which knead lovingly the dough for her cakes. Without revealing anything, Thomas gets closer to Anat (Sarah Adler, cross in Foxtrot). It quickly becomes indispensable in his coffee, and is emboldened in proposing its creations of pastry. Their loneliness and their grief is expressed. Such a crutch for the young widow, it also takes care of Itai and is welcomed by the religious family of Oren.

It has been known for Babette’s Feast that the art of cooking also allows you to become part of a Community. Ofir Raul Graizer denounces elsewhere in THE CAKEMAKER on the obligations of the jewish religion in terms of food and the puritanism of his country. And the certificate of kosher, without which Anat has not the right to sell cakes, or the prohibition of turning on an oven during Shabbat that Thomas must learn to respect.Little by little, Thomas becomes the symbol of the unlikely event of an alliance pastry between the two countries, linked forever by the horrors committed during the Second World War. But above all, the young man becomes the trait d union between a man and his wife, between a deceased person and a living, between the memory and the present. Object of love and desire for Oren as for Anat for the same reason: the sweetness that Thomas inspires and the one he offers. Because his look and his attitude of caring to the image of his pastries, which provide comfort and heat. The camera of the director filming beautifully the beauty of the complicity emerging between Thomas and Anat, beyond the disappearance of Oren, the object of their pain.

But we know that a secret is often stale and that the doubts and hunches are always bringing the truth. THE CAKEMAKER is revealed at the end of a beautiful intimate drama that warms the heart and touches subtly many topics: grieving, religion, the family, sexuality and the influence of the pastries on the feelings of love.

Sylvie-Noelle

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