About

Towards the end of the Second World War, a group of war-weary German women are herded together and forced to eat expertly cooked vegetarian food three times a day. There's just one catch – the food intended for Hitler may have been poisoned and the women had to test it.

The film is loosely based on a personal account by Margot Woelk – one of the women question – which created a sensation when it appeared over a decade ago. Historians have cast doubt on the account, but the precise veracity is not the point, says the director, Silvio Soldini. "It was quite unusual – telling for once a story about war and violence, without focusing on the men at war," Soldini said. "Instead we show how these women are affected, in this 'small' world in which they are forced to do something awful: constantly play Russian roulette for more than one year."

People are still drawn to war dramas, Soldini says, particularly now in a fraught age "in which the world seems nearer to this story than it was even two or three years ago".

Non-member tickets are £5 (full-time students £3) and can be purchased in advance from The Exchange's Box Office online at http://exchangetwickenham.co.uk/events, by telephone 020 8240 2399 or in person.

For further information on RFS and the programme of films, please visit
http://www.richmondfilmsoc.org.uk