This erotic, foodgasmic fantasy has been compared with Chocolat and Water For Chocolate because it centres on the erotic potential of food. Hoffman’s departure is that the obese chef Gregor (Josef Ostendorf) does the cooking rather than a female. With a deaf-mute waiter, he runs a restaurant in a small town in southern Germany where gourmets are prepared to pay 300 Euros for the sensual feasts. It is booked out months in advance and only has three tables. Unfortunately Gregor’s only happiness comes from the hours he spends creating his delectable offerings, as he considers himself too fat for love.
One day, Gregor rescues Leonie, a girl with Down Syndrome, from a fountain in the park and he decides to make a cake for her fifth birthday. Leonie’s mother Eden (Charlotte Roche) tastes one of the chocolates on top of the cake and it is not long before she is visiting Gregor in his kitchen. The relationship is platonic, but it is easy to see Gregor is painfully in love with Eden. Ripples of unease begin to be felt by all the characters and the pregnant Eden falls out of love with her aerobics instructor husband Xaver (Devid Striesiw). Passions boil over as this tale stumbles towards a happy ending. Delight in this German subtitled film at Somerville Auditorium (UWA) 11-17 Feb and Joondalup Pines (ECU) 18-24 Feb with the film starting at 8.30pm. Ticket details are online at www.perthfestival.com.au.
Eden (MA) is directed by Michael Hofmann
