- Release year: 2025
- Director: Silvio Soldini.
- Producers: Lionello Cerri, Stefan Jäger, Cristina Mainardi, Katrin Renz, Joseph Rouschop.
- Screenplay by: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini, Cristina Comencini, Giulia Calenda, Ilaria Macchia, and Lucio Ricca.
- Cinematography by: Renato Berta.
Synopsis: a group of women are forced into the role of tasters for Hitler to ensure that he does not get poisoned.
Shotgun Commentary: as stressful as it is fascinating.
Review
The Tasters is the type of film that will make you rethink your values. Or, at the very least, consider them under a different light. The topic of German civilians during the Second World War has always been highly controversial and quite tricky to portray. Even now, almost a hundred years after the fact, there are still very strong feelings on the subject. As such, anyone who tackles such an endeavour must be both brave and really confident in their vision. Soldini happens to be both and thus has created a fantastic story definitely worth checking out.
The feature follows a group of women who taste the food before Hitler eats it to make sure that he does not get poisoned. In particular, it follows one of them, Rosa Sauer (Elisa Schlott). Rosa is a Berliner who moves to the countryside with her husband’s family to get away from the bombings in the city. Little does she know, she is moving out of the frying pan and into the fire, as Hitler’s bunker is right next to the town she’s moving into, which leads to her being assigned the deadly job.
New beginnings
Most of the women know each other. However, Rosa is a complete outsider, having moved in just a few days before. Meeting other women in such a high-pressure environment is not exactly ideal, but if those women happen to be jealous of your circumstances on top of everything, the experience can be a meta-nightmare. The beginning of the film feels very much like a first-day-of-school type of situation, where you gauge who’s who and learn to avoid the most unsavoury characters.
The juxtaposition of a first day of school with being a lab rat for the Nazis is riveting, to say the least. Despite the nerves and potential stress, there is a certain innocence in a first day. It could be a first day at school, work, or a new neighbourhood. There is innocence in ignorance, in being an empty page in a brand new environment. Place that innocence next to the possibility of certain death, and you get an almost horror-like surrealist situation that manifests as a heavy weight in your chest. A weight that you don’t feel as it gets bigger and bigger, but whose presence crashes down on you the second the movie is over.
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This eerie atmosphere of superficial calmness with horrors looming in the depths is enhanced by beautiful cinematography. One that makes near-death experiences look aesthetic despite the inherent horror they carry. It is this visual beauty that highlights the artificial calmness that reigned in Germany as the Nazi army slowly but surely lost the war.
A calmness that could lead to the worst war crimes ever seen until that day just as easily as it could flow into a perfectly normal day. The fake tranquillity that all citizens are forced to show when they cannot even trust their own security forces. A monstrous fiction that began with the first raids and kidnappings that took place before the war and evolved until having both pro-Nazi and anti-Nazi civilians fearing for their lives in every breath they took.
All in all, The Tasters is a great example of how good a film can be when every department works in tandem with the others. The more difficult the subject, the more the end result will shine, and shine it does in this case. All visual and technical aspects are flawless, reminding strongly of one of the films featured in GFF 2026: Sound of Falling (2025). Both of them are dramas packed with untold horrors and immense talent. If you are not afraid of a little heartache, do not miss either of them for anything.
The Tasters will be available in UK & Irish cinemas from 13th March. Thanks to Strike Media for the early access.
Advice to take from this movie:
- Always be suspicious of free food.
- Whatever decision you make, you have to consider whether you will be able to sleep with it.
- The line between right and wrong isn’t always clear.
What’s your take? Have you watched The Tasters? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message on my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀