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The Tasters

My final tilt at the 2025 German Film Festival turned out to be a Swiss/Belgian/Italian co-production, directed by Silvio Soldini. It's based on a book by Rosella Postorino called At the Wolf's Table, about a year or so in the life of Margot Wölk. This luckless woman was one of 15 official food tasters for Hitler when he was staying at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia (current day Poland).

Rosa Sauer (Elisa Schlott) arrives at her parents-in-law's house in the town of Parcz to await the return of her husband from the Eastern Front. Not long after, she is co-opted into a perverse gig at the military compound just outside the town - Rosa and several other young, healthy women must taste the Fuhrer's food before he eats it, in case it's poisoned.

The dynamic between the women is well played. Some are suspicious of Rosa, due to the fact that she's from Berlin; one is young and naive; one is blindly loyal to the Reich; one is staunchly discreet. All are bricking it, and fair enough, as any day could bring sickness or death.

A handsome SS officer bastard Lt. Ziegler (Max Riemelt, also in Two to One at this year's festival) arrives and soon takes a shine to Rosa. Their ensuing relationship is a balancing act for Rosa - an addition to the peril from the possible poison, as well as the imminent Red Army approach.

Schlott is brilliant as Rosa, demure one moment, boot tough the next, occasionally sexy, occasionally sickly. She runs the gamut here and emerges with loads of credit. Alma Hasun as Elfriede is great stoic support, and Riemelt is convincingly turdish.

There's an intriguing curiosity in this film that might just be bullshit. Here me out. I think the filmmakers have added flies in certain scenes, perhaps as a cinematic form of Musca Depicta (or Painted Fly, if you prefer English). If I'm not mistaken, they appear in moments that hint at corruption or sin, and it might not be a coincidence that two of the pictures on the wall of Rosa's home are of Hitler and Jesus. Just a thought.

The poisoning scene was obvious, in hindsight, but extremely well handled. It came at a time when the tasters (and we, the audience) were getting comfortable. A timely reminder of the stakes. There's a pretty bleak, and somewhat forced, finale but no more horrific than the reality this story is based on.

The Tasters screened at the (recently finished) German Film Festival but hopefully someone picks it up for a stand-alone run.

See also:

Bryan Singer's Valkyrie (2008) and Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall (2004) both cross over with this film, and both are worth a watch, particularly the latter.

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