QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN

Fake it till you make it. These tactics can work as a charm sometimes, and such is briefly the case with best friends and flatmates Ona (Elena Ozarinskaite) and Saule (Agnieszka Ravdo). Both women who are chefs in a huge workplace canteen for workers. They sign up for a popular TV cooking contest by bending the strict rules of participation – everything seems to go in their favour, against all odds. Needless to say, it takes much more than just the talent and willingness to appear on the popular TV show. The attraction is designed to be flashy, loud and hip. Each contestant is expected to have an impressive resume and job in a famous restaurant, which neither of the women does. Longing for something more than preparing the same old popular dishes in the canteen, Saule comes to a creative solution in order to boost their careers. A fake restaurant profile is created and both bio sexed up in order to impress the selection jury.

In Egle Vertelyte’s second successful attempt at satire (after her 2017 debut Miracle), she steps out from the countryside onto Kaunas, the second-largest city of Lithuania, in order to portray two women fighting for their right to be creative, and to have better career prospects. This film dish is also infused with dramatic flavours. In our contemporary society, it’s all about looks, likes, followers and presentation. A jury member pretends to be a French food expert, and he is asked to speak Lithuanian with a French accent. Likewise, the contenders are dressed and coiffed to please the eye since the interest in their talent stopped after the casting. Applicants are asked to look photogenic while kneading the dough and sharing details of their private lives. Ona is a single mum coerced into talking about post-natal depression on national television.

Tasty is a whimsical criticism of the entertainment industry, as well as a denunciation of its superficiality. A movie that questions false perspectives and shallow values on many levels. After Ona kicks her out of her apartment, Saule has to put up with bourgeois attitudes in the house of wealthy friend.

Vytautas Plukas’s crisp photography, combined with the tasteful set design, ensures that the movie is delightful to watch throughout. Real eye candy. Lithuanian enfant terrible Titas Petrikis’s score mixes traditional choir with classical tunes. The tasteful music connects with every single aspect of the story.

On the other hand, the script isn’t as scrumptious. The idea of that the entertainment industry is corrupt becomes repetitive. And the characters lack charisma. Nobody has a certain je-ne-sais-quois – bot even the audacious Saule.

Tasty just premiered in the Baltic Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Writer and director Egle Vertelyte first proved her talent for comedy with Miracle, which scooped five Silver Cranes (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress for Egle Mikulionyte, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematographer for Emil Christov) at the Lithuanian Film Awards, and four further awards internationally.