Released in cinemas on the 6th of May is German film, Soul Kitchen, which won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival (2009). This is the latest film from award winning Turkish/German director, Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven). Akin’s growing influence in European cinema was recognised during the recent Audi Festival of German Films, where a selection of his films was screened, including Soul Kitchen, which was the Brisbane and Adelaide opening night film.
Soul Kitchen is a comedy about relationships, family and food. The film centres around a struggling restaurant in Hamburg, called ‘Soul Kitchen’, which looks like it is straight out of an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. The food is all fried and mircowaved frozen pizzas and hamburgers and the clientele isn’t much to rave about either. Zino Kazantsakis (Adam Bousdoukos, who co-wrote the screenplay with Akin) is the owner, but he has bigger things to worry about, like his girlfriend (Pheline Roggan) moving to Shanghai, and his ex-con brother, Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu) turning up and wanting a job. Plus there is an unpleasant developer, Thomas Neumann (Wotan Wilke Möhring) who is circling the industrial restaurant location as a money-making gentrification project.
This film is a fun look at the ups-and-downs of running a restaurant, navigating relationships and coping with a bad back! With a wonderful cast who make their hapless characters rather endearing and a great soundtrack including, not surprisingly, funky soul classics, Soul Kitchen is a Germanic cinematic gem.
We have 5 in-season, double passes to give away for Soul Kitchen. To go into the draw, you must be a subscriber to our fortnightly newsletter. If you’re not already, it’s easy – just pop your email address here. Then email your name and address to olivia@trespassmag.com by the 10th May, putting ‘Soul Kitchen’ in the subject line.
