A master chef, Slovik of Slovakia, togethers with his crew of cooks - who never question a word from him - prepares his Last dinner, a 12-persons dinner (probably an intended reference to Christ's Last Supper) which will engage not just the sense of taste, but entire lives of his customers, till the very end. Who would like to transform a dinner for moneyed people into some scripted ritual ending with the death of everyone as a form of properly burned human sacrifice? Only a religious person, and a true believer - the film main fabular arc is a not so subtle hint that in the hierarchy of earthly powers, religion still trumps that supposed queen of our age, namely economy. When both blooded and shocked customers try to threaten him with their command of lower earthly powers, he now has only one answer to them: I own everything here, this island is my kingdom, its waters are my waters, and even Coast Guard (servants as they are) hears my command, as it will be evident in one scene. He is now officially not a madman, but a priest and a king in one.
Slovik's followers are of two kind: apostles and believers. The servants are the apostles and the believers are simply Church-going masters (masters worshipping a servant, ha!). The servants are cooks and believers are restaurant patrons.
The servants are perfect artisans, and when they are not perfect, they want to kill themselves: you are forced to admit that they take pride in their art - to extremes. Customers are less obedient but still trusting, until they really cannot take what is "served" anymore.
The chief name, Slovik, when read in English seems to be a wordplay on the word "slave", which gives us a clue that the story is another commentary to the Biblical prophecy of Noah in which he named the children of Ham as the slaves of the children of Shem and Japhet (another recent movie which seems to be based on this Biblical story is "New Order" of Michel Franco). The obsessive concern of Slovik with identifying who is a servant and who is not gives credibility to this interpretation - it is of utmost importance that during The End, lines will not be blurred, that everyone will known his or her place. Also, only a servant girl, a female Judas so to say (it is she who will call Coast Guard, crossing Slovik's will) , can question Slovik and have granted upon her some kindness - here in the form of a double cheeseburger - bestowed upon her as a kind of parting gift for the single Judas type, a servant who refuses to celebrate with other servants. Hamites, sometimes to be rumoured to be a progeny of Cain, are after all proudful artisans and will expect only praise from their brothers and sisters.
Slovik's last supper is a reversal not just of the Christ's Last Supper of the New Testament, but of the Biblical command of the Old Testament - now for a short time servants are masters of their masters very existence whether the latter like it or not - a reversal that truly can find its place only before the end of age, during the reign of God's Opponent upon Earth (and there will be the "Fallen Angel" installation for the guests of the Slovik's restaurant) directly preceding the God's Final Judgement, represented here by the final fire engulfing the island. Yet it is still the reversal of the Last Supper too - all 12 guests will have their sins (broadly, variations of seven deadly sins) exposed and NOT FORGIVEN. If there is Christ somewhere here, it is clearly not The Merciful Christ of Cross, but The One Of The Final Judgement.
However, in Slavic languages "Slovik" has another meaning: that of nightingale. In the Bible, a nightingale can be met only once, in that book beloved by Kabbalists: the Song of Songs, 2:12, which can be translated as "The time of the nightingale is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land". "The time of nightingale" is spring, of course,
a time of regeneration & generation, of the sacred prostitution too, and that ancient time of the celebration of the return of Adonis, sometimes simply known as "The Gardener" - well, is Slovik another face of This Gardener..? He certainly speaks often in religious terms and fires the final fire dispensing the words of love, a last indication that, unless Slovik is a madman, we partake in a religious ritual - Slovik's last speech about love and fire has something Christian in it after all.
The only person who survives this fire is a prostitute, not sacred though, but a PROSTITUTE nevertheless, and one clothed in purple - like that harlot of Babylon from the Revelation of St John. The last scene, loosely summoning the Arc of Noah story, offers therefore a hope to all disgruntled servants, real and metaphorical, genetic and mental - we will survive another blast of Jahwe's fiery flamethrowers of justice! That's the promise, that's the spirit! Of note is the lack of any surviving men: in a sense it is again a reversal of Noah story, where only passengers of his Arc with names were males. Yet in another sense, the last scene of the surviving harlot, the single survivor from the 12 guests, is a kind of reversal of the traditional Judas story in the spirit of its gnostic interpretation which compared Judas to saint as his betrayal was necessary for Christ redeeming sacrifice.
But don't worry, it was just a film... about a madman in the kitchen, really.
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