The first scene of the film "The Tasters" is set in November 1943, in the East Prussian village of Gross-Partsch (present-day Parcz, Poland). A young woman called Rosa Sauer (played by Elisa Schlott) is fleeing her bombed-out apartment in Berlin and moving in with her in-laws, who live in the village. Her husband, a German soldier, is fighting in Ukraine.

Just a couple of kilometers away from the village, hiding in a thick forest surrounded by barbed wire, is the "Wolf's Lair" — the Eastern Front military headquarters of Adolf Hitler.

Shortly after her arrival, Rosa lands among a group of women who are forcibly recruited by the SS. The women are driven every day to Hitler's secret complex to serve as his food tasters.

Without ever seeing him, the women know that the Nazi "Führer" has many enemies and that his meals — and thereby theirs — could be poisoned. Even though so many Europeans at the time are desperate for food amid the war, the elaborate meals are a source of terror for the women.

Amid the tension, Rosa develops a secret relationship with SS lieutenant Ziegler (played by Max Riemelt) and becomes friends with a shy woman in the group, Elfriede (Alma Hasun), who has good reasons to be discrete.

The German-language film, directed by Italian filmmaker Silvio Soldini ("Breads and Tulips," 2000), is based on Rosella Postorino's bestselling novel, "Le assaggiatrici" (2018), which was translated into more than 30 languages, including in English as........

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