soul kitchen
di Fatih Akin

con Adam Bousdoukos, Birol Ünel

Altri interpreti:  Moritz Bleibtreu, Pheline Roggan

29/30

„As a director I want to experiment. I do not want to repeat myself. I would prefer to fail as a director but going on testing myself” – said Fatih Akin about first comedy in his film output - Soul Kitchen, which had been showed among the twenty four movies qualified to International Film Festival Competition in Venice and awarded by a Special Jury Prize.

After the 54th Berlinale in 2004, the German director of Turkish descent, became renowned for the Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2004) - the Golden Bear's awarded movie. In one of the leading roles, Fatih Akin filled Birol Ünel at the time, as well as himself - the Turkish immigrant, living in Hamburg. An outstanding melodrama, concerning on multicultural issues, immigration's problems and identity indicated the way, which director was meant to take. In any case, he seems to reaffirm the conjectures which had been made by his following films: Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005) or The Edge of Heaven (Auf den Anderen Seite, 2007), awarded for the Best Screenplay during Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Yet, Fatih Akin admitted in Venice that the Soul Kitchen's comedic screenplay had came into being before his famous Head-On. However, not till his friend's death, when he understood that “as much as death is part of life, so is humor”, he decided to resume his project abandoned from before years. In co-operation with his screenwriter, Adam Bousdoukos, he typecast in the parallel peripheral roles Birol Ünel, mentioned above, debutante Anna Bederke and Moritz Bleibretreu - the protagonist from Oskar nominated Uli Edel's movie The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008).

The plot of Fatih Akin’s movie plays in Hamburg and the suburbs of The Elbe River and Wilhelmsburg. It tells a story about a slightly underground restaurant called Soul Kitchen run by Zinos Kazantzakis and his friends. “But why soul kitchen?” – one may asks. “Soul Kitchen is like soul music, do you understand?” – Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) would answer the question. Indeed, even the movie oscillates between variable lyrical spirits and explicit dynamic sequences. In the inner image’s rhythm, divided into reggae, rock songs playing live, Greek independent music vested by Rebmetiko or German songs by Hans Albers, in an extremely natural way soul polyphony crept into the text. Therefore, the soul kitchen’s story is a starting point to build up the parallel histories about each particular characters.

The peripheral characters’ storylines – rebellious artist Lucia (Anna Bederke), working as a bar mate, Zinos’ brother (Moritz Bleibretreu) - the clumsy robber, who tries to keep in secret his permanent residence in jail or uncompromising chef (Birol Ünel)­­­ – are colorful background for the main point in the plot. Young bar owner, Zinos as a Greek immigrant tries to find his place in German society and love, which seems to be more complicated than forming oneself. His girl Nadine (Pheline Rogal) opens proverbial Pandora’s Box and lead Zinos astray. She impels him to fight not only for love, but against the ruthless capital market.

What is really interesting is that for the director the urban development of world is metaphorically associated with evolution of the human identity. That is way the man may find his place in the society only via getting involved into its rules. Consequently, Soul Kitchen finds its place among the majority of festival’s screenings focused on the capital market issue or inner moral codes of great corporations. It is now necessary to mention also a visionary anty-utopian animation Metropia by Tarih Saleh, showed in a section Critic’s Week or the newest Steven Soderbergh film The Informant! qualified to the Competition or stunning Michael Moore document Capitalism: A Love Story.

Yet, uncommon easiness in storytelling differ Fatih Akin’s movie not only from the other films but also from his own previous images. The combination of heavyweight problems with the specific joie de vivre makes the movie an extraordinary picture with screenplay perfectly written. The risk, which director took, seems to be beneficial step to run away from being classify as an author who choose only well known paths. Although Fatih Akin is willing to use components quite similar to each other, he also collets remarkable stories. Finally, his multicultural world became the open space for sweet-and-sour tales about (not)ordinary lives.

13:09:2009

pubblicata originariamente in venezia.66