Rated: M
Directed by: Christoffer Boe
Written by: Tobias Lindhold & Christoffer Boe
Produced by: Louise Vesth & Sisse Graum Jørgensen
Starring: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Katrine Greis-Rosenthal.
Danish with English Subtitles.
‘If you ask me what I want
I’ll tell you.
I want everything.’
A Taste of Hunger is about the journey of a chef wanting to fulfill his dream of being awarded a Michelin Star.
Going back ten years, it was when Carsten (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) met Maggie (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal); when she tasted his fancy food at a party no-one else wanted. When she told him that he deserved his own restaurant. That’s when he knew what his life was. A dream. A Michelin Star. Together. That’s what they hunger for.
It’s a film more about the relationship between Carsten and Maggie, and their family of two children, Chloe (Flora Augusta) and August (August Christian Vinkel), and the sacrifices they make to have everything. But can they have everything? Eventually, something has to break.
The journey of food and the subtleties of relationship are intertwined, told in chapters, named after the tastes: sweet, sour, fat, salt and heat.
The food adds the sensory to an emotive mystery as Carsten makes food worth fighting for but becomes so focused that nothing else matters beyond what’s on the plate.
Then Maggie finds a letter, typed, anonymous, addressed to Carsten: ‘Your wife is in love with someone else.’ She hides the letter, knowing it will destroy all they’ve worked for.
The knowing looks and play of dialogue lead an emotional investment as Carston describes creating a dish requiring the same elements as attributes needed in a relationship: attention, dedication and passion.
Knowing actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jamie Lannister in, Game of Thrones (winning him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2018), it was refreshing to see him in this role as a native Dane.
He wears the suit of an obsessive chef well, and he’s a man you believe to be in love.
The relationship between Maggie and Carston is the centrepiece of the film offset with the warm aesthetic of the restaurant with the light shining up through moss onto the branches of a small tree – an echo of Maggie looking up into the autumn leaves of a tree in awesome relief when they find out they’ve successfully purchased a place for their restaurant; their dreams coming true.
Along with the relationship’s dynamics, the looks; the children, brother and sister, are given space and relevance in the story as well, adding weight to the pressure of having everything, and the price to be paid.
There’s attention to detail in the portrayal of the story, like the echo of the tree, like the title of each chapter overlaying the view of each setting and giving each stage of the relationship a taste: sweet when they first meet, sour when the story of their relationship begins to turn.
The detail in the telling adds that emotional tone, drawing me in so the journey of their relationship was felt, the need for that dream of being awarded the Michelin Star understood. It means everything. But not without everything else.