Plot
Autumn 1943. While her husband is serving at the front, Rosa Sauer has fled bomb-stricken Berlin and taken refuge with her in-laws in the northeastern Prussian village of Gross-Partsch. One morning the young woman is taken to Wolf's Lair, the Nazi headquarters. There she joins a group of women who are forced to eat meals before they are served to the Führer to make sure that the food is not poisoned. In this atmosphere of coercion, and torn between the fear of dying and the hunger that devours them, the tasters will form alliances, friendships and secret pacts among themselves, without ceasing to hope.
Reception
The film received favorable reviews generally from Italian film critics.
La Repubblica's film critic Alberto Crespi described the film as "different from anything Soldini has shot so far", "well shot and beautifully acted", "an outstanding film that is worth watching". Manuela Santacatterina of Movieplayer.it described Le assaggiatrici “a film with an international scope” in which “the careful reconstruction of sets, makeup, and costumes is echoed in the excellent casting,” appreciating the director's decisions to move the filming into “circumscribed spaces” and “on the details, the small personal stories, the details on the sidelines of the conflict. It reconstructs a women's world victimized by the conflict where solidarity and betrayal coexist." Carola Proto of Comingsoon.it also noted how "the organization of the filmic space is perfect", dwelling on the female characters "filmed in groups, they seem to press on the edges of the frame", but that in the course of the film "each one acquires distinct traits, calling for identification and leading us to reflect on past and current oppressive dynamics, on painful historical ebbs and flows".
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