Talisman
Logline
Meet Annabelle, a talented but jobless chef whose talisman and tester is Flo, a homeless man; connected through their passion for food, both learn from each other how to fight for their dream.
Synopsis
Talisman takes us into the life of 29-year old Annabelle, a spirited and cheerful young woman whose heart belongs to the art of cooking.
Annabelle is a brilliant chef who creates delicious dishes but somehow not successful in finding a job.
The only person who strongly believes in her talent is her best friend Flo, a homeless man and former singer who lives on the street around her corner.
As a daily routine, Annabelle always brings Flo her newest creations. Both share a passion for food and Flo is a real gourmet and Annabelles honest tester who motivates her to keep on believing in herself and her talent.
Annabelles father, Jeff - a famous chef himself - doesn´t want to have anything to do with her after the loss of his Italian wife. He is parallysed after her death, and ignores his daughter as her temperament reminds him of her.
Being rejected by her father and some restaurants she applied for a job, Annabelle slowly looses her optimistic attitude and is about to give up.
It is Flo, someone who gave up on his life himself, who teaches her that she has to stay strong to achieve her goal.
One day after an argument arised between the two of them, they part in anger which is the start of a challenging journey for both of them.
After having been fighting for her father´s acceptance for a long time, Annabelle realizes that she has to let him go to let him find back himself and therein hopefully his love for her. At the same time she understands that she has to be brave and stand out with a distinctive style to become a succesful chef.
In the meantime, Flo finds a job advert for a chef´s assistant position in the paper and goes for the first interview in his life - one that´s not even for himself. He scrabes together every penny he has and buys himself an elegant suit, the first one since 1979.
Julio, his friend from the coffee shop around the corner and a former hairdresser gets him into the right shape and style before the big moment arises: With a pumping heart, Jeff gets Annabelles specialities in front of a chubby restaurant owner, Giovanni.
Just the day before, they had made up for their argument and Flo cleverly kept one of Annabelle´s specialities, now soaked up by Giovanni who is thrilled by the quality.
In the end it turns out that both, Annabelle and Flo became a talisman for each other: Flo got Annabelle the job of her dreams and in return is inspired, well, let´s say forced by her to give his singing career another go. They learned from each other that you´ve got to fight for your dreams and stand up to make them come true.
While this all happens, Jeff reads a letter Annabelle left him and finally starts to reconnect with himself again.
Project details
Production Company: Raindancer Films
Writer & Director: Eliza Schroeder
Shooting Period: London, August/September 2008