The Cakemaker

Tim Kalkhof is such a great actor. Just by looking at his look and the expression on his face you can understand his deep feelings. Excellent movie.

Here we have a beautiful movie about a woman who apparently has given up religious observance (why?) and opened a cafe although she's not particularly good in the kitchen (why?) and a couple of men who fall in love with each other (why?) but although they're extremely underwritten characters, you don't notice because you're carried along by the pacing and the photography and the architecture and the music and some nice cakes and cookies. ("What cafe would serve such a big slice of cake?" my wife says.) It doesn't hurt that the actors are well chosen, including one of Israel's top actresses, Sara Adler, who seems to specialize in strong but quietly uncertain women. Any movie featuring her is worth seeing, even if there isn't much else to it (as in, for example, 2012's "Aya").

A magnificent film. for the precise manner to build the emotions. for the art of detail. for impeccable performances. for gestures, silence and the breath of words. a film mixing in splendid manner the grace, the sensitivity, the clash of civilisations and the love stories. a graceful film. like the taste of a slice of Black Forest cake or the taste of cinnamon cookies. for me it was a revelation. because it is more than a good/beautiful film. it is more than a complex and almost mystic love story. it is more than a masterpiece. it is exactly the film who you need it.Sarah Adler , givind the salted gestures, words and emotions of her character. Tim Kalkhof creating a character of Romanticism in pure sense. the cooking becoming sensual and magic. all being absolutely perfect. delicate. convincing. and the package for the best gift. short, a graceful film.

"The Cakemaker" is a gentle, sad film about a young German man who becomes infatuated with his deceased male lover and travels to Israel to be close to the lover's widow and child. He gets a job at a cafe run by the widow and the two of them strike up an uneasy romance of sorts -- both of them use the other as a proxy for the man who's no longer in either of their lives. Within this complicated emotional scenario, the film explores themes of cultural and religious prejudice and intolerance -- the German man has to overcome animosity and assumptions made about him by some of the Israeli characters while the widow has to contend with a different sort of prejudice because she's not religious and isn't "kosher" enough for some.

It's a very quiet and thoughtful film, and I really enjoyed its gentle rhythms. It's very much about grief and the human instinct to find people and things to keep alive the memories of those we've lost.

Grade: A-

This movie creates a really gripping and innovative story that will cause goosebumps all over your body.

The main plot is simple but still unique. The director takes us along into a foreign country where we feel as isolated as the lead character is. Getting this vibe across to audiences is such a hard thing to do. You really feel like you are there in Jerusalem, having this rough time and you feel empty, lost, sad and depressed. On the other hand, all the positive moments in that movie actually bring joy to yourself as well. The movie is in German, English and Hebrew, so it's extremely authentic in its core. You have to decide for yourself how you feel about the ending, because I thing that could have been done a little bit better, but again.... it transfers all these complex emotions to you and Tim Kalkhof can just express without any words needed, what pain is.

A difficult topic, that you will most certainly remember.