The Cakemaker

In a story that sounds like something out of the canon of ironic 20th-century melodramas by director Douglas Sirk (Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows), filmmaker Ofir Raul Graizer’s The Cakemaker finds Thomas (Tim Kalkhof), a strapping blonde Berliner who bakes pastries in a cozy cafe, becoming romantically involved with Oren (Roy Miller), a city planner from Jerusalem who visits Berlin on business each month. Oren is married and has a 6-year-old son in Israel. As his relationship with Thomas intensifies, both men become comfortable with the idea of having an affair that brings them together only a few days per month. But then Thomas learns that Oren has been killed in an accident back home. Yearning to somehow stay connected to his former lover, Thomas travels to Jerusalem, where he seeks out Oren’s widow, Anat (Sarah Adler), and (without revealing his true identity) helps her reopen her own cafe. As the boundaries of their own relationship expands, the question of what each of the major characters secretly wants is deftly explored. Recommended. (T. Keogh)