La Cocina

After winning the Silver Bear for Best Script in 2018 with Museo, Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios returns to the Berlinale Competition with an adaptation of Sir Arnold Wesker’s play The Kitchen (also source material of the eponymous 1961 British film). With the recent influx in kitchen dramas (The Menu and The Taste of Things coming to mind, as well as the series The Bear), this could prove to be a masterly move, providing audiences don’t become fed up with the genre before La Cocina’s general release.

In his first film on foreign soil, Ruizpalacios returns to the black and white 4:3 format visuals of his feature debut, Güeros.

La Cocina starts with jumpy images of a ferry to Manhattan, almost as if they were taken from a traveller’s home video. A young woman, Estela (Anna Díaz in astonishing screen debut) needs to get to Times Square, but her inability to speak English complicates the trip. In a mad rush, she makes it to her destination: The Grill, a restaurant frequented by tourists in hopes of working in their kitchen.

There, one character after the other is introduced, in a fluency that manages to covey glimpses of their personalities and their standing in the establishment, without being overly reliant on exposition. The most important figures turn out to be undocumented cook Pedro (Raúl Briones) and waitress Julia (Rooney Mara). The supporting cast is made up of familiar faces, such as Orange is the New Black’s Laura Gómez or Oded Fehr, who plays the big boss Rashid. No matter their screen time or how much of their struggle the viewer will get to witness, each character is treated with an objective of their own, making it a truly visceral viewing experience. A number of interrelated but individual storylines emerge, virtually allowing each protagonist to inhabit their own genre to operate in.

The chaos of the stressful working environment is also exacerbated by the pacing of the edit, which varies from scene to scene. Initially very fast jumps from close-up to close-up accompany the acceleration of heart rates. However, the climax of the film is a long tracking shot that follows figures in and out of the kitchen, waitresses yelling for their orders and taking them to the customers, while all hell breaks loose back of house.

As the action all takes place in a single day, the only outright criticism that can be made is that the film is slightly too long. It could have easily been condensed to a smooth two-hour runtime, instead of its current 139 minutes.

La Cocina is a masterfully crafted tale of miscommunication, which substantiates that there are still stories to be told about the American Dream. It will be infinitely relatable to anyone with working experience in the service sector, particularly those in gastronomy.

Selina Sondermann

La Cocina does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.

Watch a clip from La Cocina here: