Filming has commenced this week on Silvio Soldini’s new movie, The Tasters, in the province of Bolzano in the South Tyrol. The film is based on Rosella Postorino’s novel of the same name, an international bestseller published in 46 countries with over a million copies sold worldwide. The novel is inspired by the testimony of Adolf Hitler’s last food taster. The screenplay is written by Cristina Comencini, Ilaria Macchia, Giulia Calenda, Doriana Leondeff, and Soldini.
Director Soldini’s previous films include Un’anima divisa in due (Venice 1993), Burning in the Wind (Berlin 20002), Bread and Tulips (Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2000) and Emma, which was selected out of competition in Venice in 2017.
Tasters follows the story of young Rosa, who escapes bomb-stricken Berlin in the autumn of 1943 and seeks refuge in a small, isolated village near the eastern border where her in-laws live. Her husband, deployed on the front, has advised her to take shelter there until the war ends and he returns. Rosa soon discovers that this seemingly peaceful village hides a secret: Hitler’s headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair, is located in the forest near the village.
The Tasters is an Italian-Belgian-Swiss co-production, courtesy of Lumière & Co., Tarantula and Tellfilm, backed by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the IDM Film Commission Südtirol and the Lazio Region – Lazio Cinema International. Distribution in Italy and worldwide is entrusted to Vision Distribution.
South Tyrol’s beautiful landscape and nature has attracted filmmakers, who incorporate the region’s unique places, mountains and valleys into their productions. filmmakers also use their many Lakes, such as Lake Resia with its sunken church tower, where the Netflix series Curon (2020) was filmed, the Monticolo Lakes created the setting for the Italian movie La befana vien di notte with Paola Cortellesi (2018), and the Neves Reservoir, where Latvia’s first western Where the Road leads by Mat?ss Kaža (2020) was filmed.Lake Braies in the Val Pusteria valley is where the TV series “Un passo dal cielo” with Don Matteo alias Terrence Hill was filmed for years.
Bolzano, the capital city of South Tyrol, in Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is by far the largest city in South Tyrol. The greater metro area has about 250,000 inhabitants and is one of the urban centers within the Alps.
The Bolzano Film Festival Bozen is a project of Filmclub Bozen. The festival launched in 1987 and, in 2023 had a rebrand with a new board of directors. Filmmakers from Italy and neighboring countries, such as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, come to South Tyrol to showcase contemporary European films that are not bound by convention or mainstream limitations. The festival includes competitions and prizes for the best feature film, best documentary, and an audience award. It offers a unique mix of multilingual films and guests, providing a platform for film enthusiasts to exchange ideas.
