A chef's knife skills meet his daddy issues, and the woman downstairs won't eat anything he cooks.
Recently released from prison, French chef Jacques pursues an obsession -- to leave his past behind and work for the great British chef Victor Ellwood. He knows Victor had an affair with his mother and may even be his dad. Working for iron-fisted Victor is back-breaking, but his existence is softened by the presence of a curious girl living in the downstairs flat. As he falls in love with her, he realises she not only has an aversion to restaurants, but food of all kinds. Is her eating disorder a force too resilient for anything, even love to cure?
Acting
Louise Brealey's fragile, defiant Stella steals every scene she's starving in.
Direction
Tammy Riley-Smith treats food and absence with equal sensual weight.
Director
Tammy Riley-Smith
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Louise Brealey prepared for the role by consulting eating disorder specialists and eating only prescribed small portions during filming.
The film inverts the typical 'chef as healer' trope; here cooking becomes an aggressive language Jacques uses to breach Stella's boundaries, not nurture her.
GB
