24/09/2024 - The ambitious horror feature, which began principal photography in 2019, has just been completed after four years of post-production

Nicolo Pasetti and Julia Dordel in The Bitter Taste (© Dorcon Film)

It’s the fruit of a demanding five years of work. Filming for The Bitter Taste [+see also:
interview: Guido Tölke, Julia Dordel
film profile] began in 2019 and took a total of 80 days at 25 different locations in Germany, mainly in the Lower Saxony region. The post-production, which was completed this September, took the team four years.

“It’s because the film has a lot of VFX and the production team is very small,” shares producer, co-writer and leading actress Julia Dordel, who developed the horror flick together with director and cinematographer Guido Tölke. Their project is definitely an ambitious one. “We tried to create the biggest possible film for an international audience, with the smallest possible team and maximum sustainability,” continues Dordel, who is also the owner of production company Dorcon Film. Besides The Bitter Taste, she has also been producing smaller projects, but always takes care to ensure equitable and eco-friendly working conditions.

Not only does this mean that The Bitter Taste is a green production from idea to post-production, but the team has also been focusing on issues of representation. The cast and crew, for example, have a strong female presence. The film features female lead characters of all ages, and women are depicted in male-associated jobs.

Dordel is certainly one of the driving forces behind the project. She started her career as a bank apprentice and studied Economics and Forestry. Afterwards, she lived abroad for around ten years, in Canada and Argentina. During this time, she entered the film industry and finally founded Dorcon Film in 2013. In The Bitter Taste, she uses all of her skills, also taking on the female leading role. The former semi-professional modern pentathlete is used to physically demanding roles: in the action series Mission NinetyTwo, for example, she performed all of her own stunts.

By Dordel's side are two versatile actors: Nicolo Pasetti (The Last Voyage of the Demeter, That Dirty Black Bag) and Anne Alexander Sieder (Ojai, A Heidelberg Holiday). Both have experience in TV productions, series and films, and they work for European and US productions alike. In The Bitter Taste, the trio plays three characters whose paths cross in a fateful way. The producer provides the following synopsis: “A former pentathlete (Dordel) is captured by an undead countess and her cursed followers. To survive the deadly hunt, she must reactivate her rusty skills in swimming, running, riding, shooting and fencing. Alongside a dubious yet charming fisherman (Pasetti) and a grumpy police officer (Sieder), she forms a reluctant alliance to increase their chances of survival.”

The English-language film, which is set in an unspecified time period, has a target audience of men and women aged between 25 and 55, “who enjoy action-horror thrillers with strong female leads and supernatural elements, aligning with current trends favouring intense, suspenseful narratives”. As for its filmic references, both writers, Dordel and Tölke, quote movies such as From Dusk Till Dawn, The Thing, The Evil Dead (remake) and A Cure for Wellness.

“We wanted to go beyond the average horror/slasher film by creating an entertaining genre mix that we call 'crossover horror',” says Tölke. “Given the many locations, action sequences and very limited budget, the goal was to intelligently achieve as much production value and viewing pleasure as possible. That meant figuring out how to turn a big-budget idea into a DIY project.”

In fact, the film has been financed mostly through private investors. It received public funding from nordmedia, the main funding body in Lower Saxony, at the development stage. As for the remainder of the budget, it was assured by a group of passionate executive producers, among which is the Swedish band Mando Diao, which contributed a unique soundtrack to the project.

The Bitter Taste is a Dorcon Film production. Its festival release is planned for some time this autumn. Dorcon Film is taking care of the distribution for German-speaking countries, while Minerva Pictures International has been entrusted with the international sales.

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