Cru (Raw)
2019 · 10m · Switzerland
Directed by David Oesch
Tones: darkly comic, tense
Jeanne, a young chef from a privileged background, starts her first job at a Michelin-starred restaurant and discovers that rising in the brutal kitchen hierarchy demands not artistry but total self-sacrifice. A pressure-cooker portrait of ambition and exploitation in haute cuisine, culminating in a darkly grotesque literalization of 'blood, sweat, and tears.'
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Whiplash but the chef literally bleeds into the food. The body-horror twist is the only reason I'd press play — but it IS the only reason needed.
A pressure-cooker kitchen drama whose body-horror climax literalizes Whiplash's premise — the gesture is bold but the comparison points to TV's The Bear are honest, and that's where this lives. Capably executed genre work.
Short of the Week's hosting and 77K views back up the kitchen-thriller pressure-cooker framing, and at 10 minutes the bloody literalization of "blood, sweat, and tears" lands without overstaying. A Whiplash-shaped piece that delivers its body-horror payoff in genre-appropriate time.
Reviews
By the end, it's not just the young chef who has been through the mill — Oesch ensures our nerves have been shredded and fried.
For true success you may need to put in your chunk of flesh — the slightly dark humour and result of Cuisinière's hard work may be difficult to stomach, but CRU is saying that hard work and perseverance are all well and good.
Festivals
- Tribeca Film Festival 2020, Student Visionary Award
- Tribeca Film Festival 2021
- WE ARE ONE Global Film Festival 2020