‘An adult fable on power, sex and cooking’ is the tagline of ‘Estômago’, ‘a gastronomic story’. The movie is shot in Brazil, but a joint production of Brazilians and Italians.

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‘Estômago’, being Brazilian for ‘stomach’ is about Raimundo Nonato, or ‘Rosemary’ as his nickname will become. This anti-hero arrives in São Paulo without money, but with one big talent: cooking. He will use it not only to survive, but also to seduce the prostitute Iría, who loves his snacks and food. Gradually however he really falls in love and wants to marry her. The movie is told from two different perspectives and the flash forwards make the viewer curious to what has happened in the end, since all the prospects are set in prison, where the apparently not so innocent nitwit Nonato ends up. There he uses the same tactics as he did before and becomes ‘somebody’ because of his talent for cooking. This movie however is not so much of a feel-good-movie as the average film about food. It has a bitter taste, not only because of the ambiguous characters of all protagonists, but also the hard world in which the characters move themselves contribute to this. In spite of its predictability this movie is not a total waste of time, though I had expected more from it. A must-see for fans of the ‘food-film-genre’, but if you are not so fond of it I would not recommend it.