Soul Kitchen Dir. Fatih Akin

[Corazon International; 2009]

Styles: comedy
Others: Head-On, The Edge of Heaven

If the camera is like an eye, and the eyes are the windows to the soul, and the way to man’s heart is through his stomach, then it’s probably okay and even apt to describe “music as food for the soul.” Such is Zinos’ declaration in Soul Kitchen. Directed by Fatih Akin, the film is a potluck of different and wonderful elements appealing to all the senses, telling the story of two German-Greek brothers living in Hamburg: Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos), the owner of the local dive restaurant and music venue Soul Kitchen, and Illias (played wonderfully by Moritz Bleibtreu), a convicted criminal serving his time in prison. After Zinos loses his girlfriend to a work assignment in China and then has an unfortunate chance meeting with an old school friend, life starts to become more complicated, potentially treacherous, and exceedingly funny.

A series of events unfold that provide the impetus and narrative thrust for the duration of the film. Zinos’ back is injured in an accident at the kitchen; he hires a new temperamental chef who’s principles are strict and who’s food is more gourmet; tax collectors and health inspectors begin to suddenly and mysteriously appear demanding money and enforcing code violations; and Illias is released from prison under a probationary work program in which he must hold employment at Soul Kitchen. If all this sounds frustrating and tragic, it’s because it is. But it’s the kind of adversity that, in this film, is handled with a careful attention to all the potential humor, redemption, and triumph available for both the characters and audience.

With Soul Kitchen, Akin continues to explore the thematic elements that are integral to his work. Family and tradition still remain both focal points and places of tension, but in Soul Kitchen there is little of the geopolitical fixtures that are emblematic of Akin’s films. His previous movies, Head-On and The Edge of Heaven, both deal explicitly with transnationalism, a concept important to contemporary German cinema and to Akin’s work as a Turkish-German director. In both films, the characters struggle against religious, ethnic, and gender prejudices while migrating between Germany and Turkey, developing and demolishing family ties and personal bonds. But in Soul Kitchen, there is a departure from this kind of explicit and heavy tone. Although the cross-cultural elements still remain — this time with Germany, Greece, and China — they only appear to inform and explain some of the vague “otherness” Zinos feels.

For a film imbuing food with a transformative and ritualistic power, Akin makes a beautiful spectacle of each morsel. From the stale cold crystal texture of the freezer burn with white goopy condiments to the carefully plated proteins and elegant garnishes, the evolution of the menu and its function in the film is captured through all the aromatic visuals. Food becomes an item of status and taste. In turn, the meal and its preparation evolve into acts of respect, love, and community, translating nicely to the relationships and gestures that develop between the characters. Peppered with an excellent supporting cast that exudes charm and humor without becoming trite, Soul Kitchen engages the audience through a mélange of sound and sight. Appealing to our souls, hearts, stomachs, ears, and any other part of the body and mind susceptible to the magic of a good movie with good music, Soul Kitchen is indeed a cinematic feast.

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