Here’s What the Critics Are Saying About Israeli-German Melodrama ‘The Cakemaker’

The Cakemaker, a new drama about the unusual relationship between a German baker and an Israeli cafe owner, lands in select theaters across the country today. So far the critics are impressed by the first feature-length film from Israeli director Ofir Raul Graizer.

The movie tells the story of Thomas (played by Tim Kalkhof), an acclaimed Berlin baker, who begins an affair with Oren (Roy Miller), a traveling businessman with a wife and son back home in Jerusalem. After Oren dies, Thomas travels to Israel to find his wife, Anat (Sarah Adler), who operates a kosher bakery/cafe. He beings working at her restaurant without revealing his prior relationship with Thomas, and the two gradually develop a close bond with each other. As Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis notes, The Cakemaker is “a tender love triangle with a ghost in the middle,” and “a master class in exquisite restraint.”

The Cakemaker/Strand Releasing

The critics all have nice things to say about the cakes and cookies feature in the film, but NPR’s Andrew Lapin notes that the movie is “more than just pastries” because Graizer is also “musing on contemporary Israeli-German relationships, and all the emotional baggage that comes with them.” Slant’s Pat Brown admires how the film shows the “contrast between Thomas’s approach to food as a sensual, private activity and the Israelis’ approach to it as a religious and communal one.” And LA Times critic Ken Turan writes, “Like a patient baker, filmmaker Grazier sees no reason to rush what happens between Thomas and Anat, and these two become key parts of each other’s lives so gradually, the acting and directing are so precisely right, that we believe what transpires.”

The Cakemaker is now playing in select theaters across the country, and it will land in more cities next month. Check out the trailer above, and visit the Strand Releasing homepage to find out where it’s playing near you.

• The Cakemaker [Strand Releasing]
• Review: A German ‘Cakemaker’ and an Israeli Widow Share Loss and Cookies [NYT]
• In ‘The Cakemaker,’ Grieving Is Baked In [NPR]
• ’The Cakemaker’ is a low-key but fascinating love story [LAT]
• The Cakemaker [Slant]