Lady Thatcher's Feast

Director's note

The 1990s remain inseparable in my memory from food and gastronomy. As the child of a cook working in a hotel in Poland, I grew up among tables, kitchen counters and the tension between what felt distinctly “ours” and the urge to imitate Western models.

Those years were shaped by overwork and the pursuit of prosperity. I was especially drawn to women trying to reconcile professional ambition with care for their families. Years later, in Poznań, I discovered a real story that brought these themes together: a local chef was asked to prepare a gala dinner in a university canteen for Margaret Thatcher, who had just received an honorary doctorate.

The contrast between these women fascinated me: Thatcher, a symbol of Western economic transformation, and Maria, an overworked mother navigating Poland’s transition. Their encounter takes place in an ordinary canteen – a meeting point for different social classes, suddenly expected to become an elegant venue fit for an international icon.

Lady Thatcher’s Feast is a story about transformation, class, work, motherhood and food. Maria expresses care through the dishes she prepares for her family, staff and customers. Food allows her to build a community, but also becomes an outlet for emotions she cannot name. It carries both comfort and burden, becoming an extension of her identity.

Although Thatcher’s visit is the historical trigger, the film remains focused on those who stand behind major events and are rarely remembered. I want to tell an intimate, local story rooted in fact, while exploring its psychological and moral dimensions through small gestures. The visual language will evoke Polish cinema of the 1990s, while the camera stays close to Maria. Food will serve as visual commentary and emotional metaphor. I imagine the film as vibrant in the rhythm of the workplace, yet subtle in the feelings Maria suppresses. Set three decades ago, it should also reflect who we are today – socially, locally and personally.

Producer's note

Lady Thatcher’s Feast offers a different perspective on the post-socialist transformation experienced across Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Instead of looking at this period through politics or major historical events, we enter it through a university canteen, a kitchen and the everyday life of a woman responsible for feeding others. Preparations for Margaret Thatcher’s visit become a lens through which we observe social aspirations, inequalities, fascination with the West and the pressures of a rapidly changing reality.

What makes the project particularly exciting for us is the combination of an intimate, character-driven drama with culinary cinema – a cinematic language still rarely explored in Central and Eastern Europe. Food is not simply part of the setting; it becomes a way of expressing emotions, class differences, care, ambition and identity. The canteen itself becomes a microcosm of a society in transition.

Margaret Thatcher appears in the film’s finale, during the titular feast, but she carries different meanings for different characters. For some, she represents the West, success and the promise of a different future. For Maria’s son, however, she embodies the harshness of capitalism, social inequality and conservative politics. These opposing perspectives reflect the ideological and generational tensions of the time.

We believe that the combination of a very local story and an internationally recognisable historical figure gives the project strong potential to travel. At the same time, we want to preserve its authenticity: the atmosphere of Poznań, a major city in western Poland rapidly changing in the 1990s, the texture of the period, and the perspective of ordinary people experiencing transformation from within. Our ambition is to create a visually distinctive, emotional and accessible auteur film for international festival and theatrical audiences.

Profile

Telemark develops and produces arthouse films, creative documentaries and premium series for leading platforms. Its award-winning productions have screened at Sundance, IDFA, Tribeca and Visions du Réel, and have received two International Emmy Awards and three Polish Film Awards.