In this inventive film, Slovak director Peter Kerekes re-examines the history of modern European warfare through the eyes of the field cooks, bakers and kitchen staff who “catered” some of the most significant armed conflicts of the last century. From the Wehrmacht’s bakers to Marshal Tito’s personal chef, this innovative work records the quotidian details of military cuisine, framing a sometimes absurdist vision of the futility—and perhaps inevitability—of war. As the narrative surveys modern European warfare from the Siege of Leningrad to the Chechen wars, a colorful cast of kitchen habitués emerges from obscurity to give testimony both chilling and comical. German bakers proudly recall their kommisbrot, a staple bread of the German army; an elderly Russian prepares her hearty blini, favored by Russian forces during the Leningrad Blockade. Hungarian hog farmers joke that their prized sausages fed both insurgents and Soviet troops during the 1956 Revolution. As the catalog of war grows ever longer, so does the recipe list. In the end, animals continue to be butchered, field kitchens remain stocked and the stoic cooks return, as they must, to their labors. As the filmmaker wonders aloud whether there would be any war without cooks willing to work, a Hungarian sausage maker offers perhaps the only explanation he can: “Life goes on, and the soldiers must eat.”

Filmmaker Q&A

Introduce yourself:
I am a film director and a film producer. I live in a small village in a small country - Slovakia. I live with two small kids and with my wife - Katarina Kerekesova, who is a director of animation films. I've graduated in 1998 from a film academy in Bratislava.

I've made a several movies: MORYTATS AND LEGENDS OF LADOMIROVA – 1998, 66 SEASONS – 2003, ACROSS THE BORDER - part HELPERS – 2004, COOKING HISTORY - 2009

What inspired this film?   How did you find your subjects?
I was cooking together with my father - and during cooking you are usually speaking together about various things. So we were speaking about my father’s memories of the cooking during his army service, and somehow we started to chat about military cooks.

I got an idea - it would be interesting to research how an ordinary small man - a military cook - can influence the so-called "big history". In the beginning it was just a joke, but later on I started to think about it as a serious topic for a documentary movie.

We did toooooons of research. We found around 300 cooks from all European fronts – I did interviews with 106 cooks without a camera and we then filmed with 24 of them.

What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
Basically everything. I love all the disasters during the shooting, because they have the potential to turn to the best parts of the movie.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?
I grew up on the films of Paradzanov, Iljenko, Petrović , Kusturica (his Sarajevo period) - their films had a big influence on me.

What is your all time favorite documentary?
PICTURES OF THE OLD WORLD by Dusan Hanak and WHO THE HELL IS JULIETTE by Carlos Marcovich

What other projects are in the pipeline?
I would like to make a TV series out of COOKING HISTORY - we got so much interesting material during the research that it would be very selfish to have it only on my shelf.

I've also started the research for a movie about the relationship between humans and things. It is a road movie in time and space with one question:  "What THINGS would you take with yourself, if you have to LEAVE your HOUSE FOREVER?"   

Why did you become a filmmaker?
For very selfish reasons. 

When I was a small kid, my grandparents spent the holidays every year in former Yugoslavia. It was a time when we could not travel, because of the communist regime, but my grandparents could go, because they were too old to emigrate. My grandfather took wonderful pictures of the sea.  And in cold autumn, my grandparents invited family and friends and my grandmother baked a cake and my grandfather projected the slides onto a sheet on the wall. I loved the atmosphere of the dark room, exotic pictures (even it was just Yugoslavia) and the stories of my grandfather. I would like to make a same atmosphere in my movies - I would like the audience to have the same feeling of magic that I had as a child.  

What are some of your creative influences?
It is hard to answer in several lines...

 Did you go to film school?
Yes, film academy in Bratislava, Slovakia.

 What do you shoot on?
16mm. It is very important for me to shoot on film, to know that every meter costs 85 cents. It makes me prepare for shooting very precisely.   

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit? The film is still very young.

Why did you want to screen your film at SILVERDOCS?
It seems to be an interesting festival.