Ben loves being in the kitchen, especially making his grandmother’s recipes. He dreams of opening his own restaurant one day. He wants to bake a cake for Klára, a girl he has a secret crush on. Baking is his love language. 12-year-old Ben faces bullying due to his weight, but his lively sense of humour helps him earn respect. The sworn foodie might be slightly rounder than others, but his desire to earn Klára’s attention motivates him. With a goal in mind, self-awareness and a diagnosis from the school nurse, living healthier should be… easy? Or is it?

Unexpectedly, the Czech animation tradition echoes the school hallway melodies of Martinsone’s Lame-os (2022) and the millennium cult film Mean Girls (2004). Weight issues, school bullying, intolerance of those different and peer pressure are merely the top layer of the themes covered by this animated feature, which follows a hero determined to change his life for the better. Dufková’s answer to Hollywood teen sitcoms was nominated for a European Film Academy award for Best Animated Feature and won the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s Jury Prize. The film is based on Mikael Ollivier’s popular French novel, La vie, en gros (2001), which shares the film’s unique balance of seriousness and playfulness in discussing what was once seen as merely an external sign of joie de vivre.