Seven women are forced to taste Hitler's food to check for poison. As they spend time together, their relationships evolve between loyalty and betrayal.
Director: Silvio Soldini
Cast: Elisa Schlott, Max Riemelt, Alma Hasun, Emma Falck, Olga von Luckwald, Thea Rasche, Berit Vander
Release Date: UK & Irish Cinemas March 13, 2026
Genre: Drama, History
Rated15 United Kingdom /15A Ireland for moderate to explicit sex/nudity, moderate violence/gore, and mild profanity/substance use
Runtime: 2h 3m
Review:
The Tasters is a slow burn of a WWII drama that takes a methodical approach to the story with Elisa Schlott’s Rosa Sauer carrying the lion’s share of the dramatic load with impressive ease. Inspired by the 2018 novel of the same name the story recounts an unverified tale of a group of women forced to serve as Hitler's food tasters. The story, regardless of its veracity, makes for a fascinating set up in the latter days of the war as paranoia and trepidation take hold as the German war effort slowly starts to fall apart. The film is grounded throughout, taking a similar approach to 2023’s The Zone of Interest by exploring the mundane, forced normalcy the women try to maintain even as the situation gets increasingly dire. The pacing is decidedly measured which won’t be for everyone as very little happens for large stretches of time, focusing instead and on the mentality of these women who have been separated from their husbands by separation or death in some cases. Some of the younger members of the group yearn for love that they’ve never experienced even as they play a daily ritual of Russian Roulette. Elisa Schlott’s character, Rosa Sauer, serves as the audience’s entry point into the story as we follow the events through her point of view for the majority of the time. Schlottt brings a sense of naturalism to her performance, rarely feeling forced which makes the character easy to relate to. Her affair with Max Riemelt’s Nazi officer, played by Albert Ziegler, feels a bit contrived and undercooked with the plotline given little more than shared glances before ramping up into a full-blown physical relationship is handled in a rather clumsy manner. The relationship with Alma Hasun’s Elfriede is given more time to germinate organically with pay dividends in the film’s final act. The rest of the ensemble get small moments to shine with Emma Falck’s Leni making the most of her limited screentime as the wistfully naïve member of the group who dreams of starting a relationship and family someday. You are left wishing the film had given the supporting characters a bit more time to flesh out their characters a bit more to make them more three dimensional as there’s plenty of thematic ground left untilled when it’s all said and done. That being said, The Tasters functions well as a rather fascinating side story that would play wonderfully with 2004’s Downfall from Oliver Hirschbiegel.
B-
