21/04/2010

The first film to have garnered the most critical acclaim at the 13th Malaga Spanish Film Festival is a one that, owing to its genre (romantic comedy), seemed hardly a festival title. However, David Pinillos’s debut feature Bon Appetit [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is no ordinary romantic comedy, and the Malaga competition is not known for its prudent cinematic choices, as demonstrated by the fact that almost half the selected titles vying for this year’s Golden Biznaga are comedies.

Besides cooking, which serves as a backdrop, Bon Appetit’s central theme is love. It isn’t easy nowadays to make a romantic comedy without lapsing into stereotypes, but this film pulls it off well, through a character study that is much more complex than it may appear.

The story revolves around young and ambitious Spanish chef Daniel (Unax Ugalde), who lands a job at Thomas Wackerle’s prestigious restaurant in Zurich, and attractive wine waitress Hanna (Nora Tschirner). Sparks fly that neither can control, even though it wasn’t part of their plans.

Bon Appetit is also a European film, both in terms of its production and in an artistic and cultural sense. It is co-produced by companies from three European countries – Spain (Morena Films, Orio Produkzioak), Germany (Egoli Tosell Film) and Switzerland (Zodiac Pictures) – and received backing from Eurimages.

Moreover, right from the start, the film – co-written by Pinillos, Juan Carlos Rubio and Paco Cabezas (who is putting the finishing touches to his second feature, Neon Flesh, for Morena Films) – explores an idea of Europe and some Europeans who have learned to communicate, live together and (why not?) fall in love with one another.

(Translated from Spanish)