At the Movies: Soul Kitchen
Taste is a peculiar thing – especially my taste, I’m told, but not much that is served up in Soul Kitchen tickles my fancy.
I am prepared to be taken to task by people who see the film and think it’s great. Sarah from the theatre tells me that, at its first showing, some of the crowd seemed to love it. So maybe it’s just me – OK?
The film is in German and Greek with English subtitles and is directed by Fatih Akin, a multi award-winning German film-maker of Turkish extraction. One of Akin’s earlier works, The Edge of Heaven, is a piece of real quality that impressed this reviewer. This later work is an entirely different creature, though, and if this is an indication of his strengths and weaknesses, Akin should be encouraged to abandon comedy and return to drama, where his work is much stronger.
Zinos Kazantsakis owns and cooks in a greasy spoon eatery in a converted warehouse. His customers appear to like the terrible food he dishes up from his shambolic kitchen. Zinos’ brother, Illias Kazantsakis is in prison but, nearing the end of his sentence, can be given day release if he has a job. He doesn’t want work, just a piece of paper saying that he is employed.
Zinos’ girlfriend Nadine (Pheline Roggan) is in the process of leaving to work in Shanghai. Zinos is supposed to follow her, but it takes most of the film for him to get himself free.
Major coincidence number one puts knife-throwing gypsy chef Shayn Weiss (Birol Ünel) into action at Zinos’ dive. His quality tucker threatens to drive away all the customers who like their fish fingers and chips. Sultry waitress and frustrated artist Lucia (Anna Bederke) is attracted to the feckless brother Illias, and it seems that the relationship may be the saving of him. He is a compulsive gambler, it seems, and that puts everything at risk.
Real estate dealer, Thomas Neumann (Wotan Wilke Möhring) is an old schoolfriend of Zinos’. They meet—in major coincidence number two—and the unscrupulous Neumann immediately starts trying to get his hands on the restaurant on behalf of a client.
All the while Nadine has been ringing Zinos, wanting to know when he will be coming to Shanghai. Eventually Zinos makes Illias the manager, signs the place over to him and takes off for China. At the airport he runs into Nadine (coincidence number three). Her wealthy grandmother has conveniently died (number four) and Nadine is home for the funeral—with her new Chinese boyfriend.
The coincidences and cliches keep stacking up and everything comes to a farcically chaotic conclusion—I nearly said climax—after a big crowd of revellers fall under the aphrodisiac qualities of one of the exotic ingredients of chef Shayn’s famous dessert. There is more—much more—but it’s not necessary for you to know it all. Enough to say that the crucial major coincidence (I’d stopped counting by then) that is the pivot point of the plot stretched what was left of my credulity. By the time Zinos and his physiotherapist friend were settling down to an intimate dinner for two—including the famous dessert—I’d stopped caring.
The characters and the story simply didn’t do it for me but the film is very easy on the eye and on the ear. I really liked the soundtrack – there’s plenty of soul music, of course.
As I said, I look forward to having the virtues of this film pointed out to me by people who go along and get it in all the ways that I didn’t.
Neil Wilson
Soul Kitchen (M). The next screening at The Village Theatre will be held on Sunday 5 September at 4.30pm.
