Berlinale 2025: Delicious (dir. Nele Mueller-Stöfen) | Review
Delicious (Panorama section) is an unusual platter of distress and manipulation that lays its territory for a sweet revenge on the misuse of power and the need for dominion, crafted elegantly by director Nele Mueller-Stöfen.
Ever since Director Julia Ducournau caused a stir with her Palme d’Or winner Titane, the chase to watch horror, grisly films has made a huge fan base. I am a fan too, nonetheless (always hoped for mind-boggling fears), where the diversified versions of horror have amplified recently. Director Nele Mueller-Stöfen’s Delicious in this year’s Berlinale Panorama selection joins the horror race mysteriously, with a tantalizing tale that is sure to power up your visual meal of the day.
We are introduced to a rich German family who decides to visit their French countryside vacation home in Provence, France for a summer holiday. The wife, Esther (Valerie Pachner) is quite attached to her work life through sudden work calls that seems to bother her occasionally, while the husband, John, (Fahri Yardim) makes himself busy with his sport activities. Their son, Philipp (Caspar Hoffmann) is on the verge of coming of age, who is bored with the idea of vacation and wants a change while their youngest child Alba (Naila Schuberth), is quite reserved and loves to read, but is continuously curious about new discoveries. Everything seems ordinary and moves on a typical, standard routine until a road accident involving a young adult girl, Theodora, comes into the picture. What starts as courteousness soon blooms into a trail of mystery and unforeseen circumstances, shaping the motives of every personality in the family, and out of them.
Director Nele Mueller-Stöfen’s screenplay tactfully embeds the construction of sharpness into its literal and passive meaning through wounds and piercing sentences – both showcasing agony and misery in physical and psychological statuses. The nucleus of the deliverance lies predominantly on the depiction of Theodora (played excellently by Carla Díaz) who incorporates the elements of power exploitation, malicious strategies and seduction in a subtle manner. The ideology of manipulation surrounds the surface of the film, showcasing societal hierarchy and how social standardization could turn tables through a smart reverse theory structure. One could imagine the film taking the satirical portion of luxury from Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness and combining the cynical vibe from Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil, while adding its own personal horror twist into the puzzle. The ugly sides of both the wealthy and deprived communities are taken into a psychological ride, surpassing customariness and heading towards an ominous, suspenseful turn of events.
Uplifted by Frank Griebe’s perfect sync in cinematography, Delicious is a close-up view of how influence can alter personalities, or deeply rooted when it’s deliberate and filled with narcissism and cruel intentions. It’s irrefutably a crowd-dividing film that wants to shine within its own horror spectrum, where the layers of discovering inner desires and personal struggles are peeled carefully like an onion and slowly attaches into the minds of the viewers with its sharp fangs. Perhaps the dialogue “You should not leave dishes like this; it attracts all animals” in the film is an early caution of what anticipates – a silent hidden agenda that attracts eradication.
Film Fest Report was an accredited media at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
