Day 91/95 - Kitchen Stories (2003)

By now, you know I am drawn to Indie films (often foreign) with quirky plots or characters. A friend point out this little gem to me.

In the 1944, Sweden established an institute to study the kitchen. In 1950, they changed the study to allow observers to move into the home of single male Norwegians (promising a horse but giving them a large Swedish Dala Horse instead). The observers were to sit on tall stools in the kitchens of their host and record their movements. The observers are not to talk with the host nor establish any kind of relationship with them.

Each observer drives his car and camping trailer (where he is to live during the study) and at the beginning we see a wonderful caravan of nine trailers. 

Folke Nilsson (Tomas Norström) comes but finds his reclusive elderly host, Isak Bjørvik (Joachim Calmeyer), has changed his mind and doesn’t want an observer in his home. For several days, the two establish a passive-agressive silent relationship. Folke sits and observes, and Isak turns off the lights and goes up to his bedroom where he can cook his dinner on a stove upstairs unobserved. Isak drills a hole in the ceiling directly over Folke’s stool to observe him.  Things change when Isak runs out of tobacco and Folke offers him some of his. Isak then offers Folke coffee, and the two begin a friendship that brings us smiles and even laughter. Eventually they begin to ask about the other’s life and views. "Understanding comes with communication, not observation" is the powerful message of the film.

Isak has one lone friend, Grant (Bjørn Floberg), who comes for coffee after sending a coded telephone message or to have Isak cut his hair. They don’t talk much, but quickly Grant becomes jealous of the budding friendship. He even at one point takes Folke’s trailer (with Folke in it) and leaves it at a railroad crossing in hopes a train will dispatch Nilsson. 

It would not be surprising that most of the researchers lead lonely lives. Folke seems to have no one who is concerned about him other than an elderly aunt who sends him food occasionally. As the friendship grows stronger, Isak climbs up in the stool to see what Folke sees, and he tends to occupy the stool when Folke is in his trailer. When they break all protocol and drink and eat together, it feels like a moving triumph of the need we have for other people.

The film has wonderfully quirky humor, and we find ourselves caring what happens to the two. 

You can find the film on Amazon prime and I highly recommend it.

Kitchen Stories (2003) *****