The Cakemaker

Business trips can bring a variety of surprises, but not the fact that certain encounters sometimes grow into serious affairs. After several months, however, the affair between Thomas, a pastry chef living in Berlin, and Oran, a married man from Israel, is cut short by a tragic event. Oran is killed in a car crash, and Thomas feels he has no choice but to seek out his lover’s widow, who is now bringing up their son alone. Despite initial mistrust at his German origins, grieving Anat gives the taciturn young man work in her café, unaware that the unnamed sorrow which connects them is for one and the same man. Debuting helmer Ofir Raul Graizer has submitted a feature melodrama whose strength rests in its subtle treatment of the love theme. Delicate and nearly imperceptible emotions are foregrounded, while painful secrets are only gradually revealed. This formally accomplished debut therefore manages to deliver a powerful statement on love that isn’t contingent upon sexual orientation.