Tim Kalkhof in “The Cakemaker" at the Figge Art Museum -- October 5.
Thursday, October 5, 6:30 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Lauded by Variety as "a tender, tactile, and just-sweet-enough story of hidden love, challenged faith, and unwittingly shared grief," writer/director Ofir Raul Grazier's The Cakemaker enjoys a special October 5 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, the 2017 romantic drama also praised by the Los Angeles Times as a work in which "a most fascinating kind of tension results -- an unusual state of affairs that plays fair with the characters, and with us."
In The Cakemaker, the young German baker Thomas (Tim Kalkhof) is having an affair with Oren (Roy Miller), an Israeli married man who has frequent business visits in Berlin. After Oren dies in a car crash in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking answers regarding his death, and under a fabricated identity, he infiltrates into the life of Anat (Sarah Adler), his lover's newly widowed wife who owns a small café in downtown Jerusalem. Though at first he is not allowed to make food, as it puts the café at risk of losing its kosher certification, Anat eventually tries some baked goods that Thomas made for her son's birthday and allows him to make food for her establishment. Thomas consequently starts to work for Anat, creating German cakes and cookies that bring life into the café, and when Anat makes an unexpected advance on Thomas, he hesitantly reciprocates. So begins Grazier's tale of love, passion, and gradually mended hearts, a moving drama that the San Diego Chronicle praised as "a testament to what filmmakers can achieve when they trust the audience."
With Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reading, "The Cakemaker explores all-consuming emotion with beguiling restraint, adding up to a delicately understated character study fueled by the power of love," the movie had its first screening in the market at the Cannes Film Festival for buyers and distributors. It was acquired for distribution in Japan and the United States, and its official premiere was in the 2017 Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the main competition. The Cakemaker was honored by a standing ovation that lasted 10 minutes, and Grazier's achievement, which currently boasts a 97-percent "freshness" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, won the Ecumenical Jury Award. A month later, in the Jerusalem Film Festival, The Cakemaker won two awards: the Lia Van Leer Award and the Best Editing Award. Subsequently, The movie participated in numerous film festivals worldwide, winning 11 awards including the prestigious 2018 Ophir Award for Best Picture, and the work was selected as the Israeli entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards,
The Cakemaker will be screened in the John Deere Auditorium on October 5, admission to the 6:30 p.m. screening is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
