Soul Kitchen

Fatih Akin (Head-On, The The Edge of Heaven) has made a comedy. Hooray for him. Hooray for us. The German filmmaker is best known for his prize-winning, brooding dramas that grapple with the uneasy co-existence of Turks and Germans in an ever changing Europe. In Soul Kitchen, Akin turns playful, taking us inside a restaurant in Hamburg. It's a funky, enormous place with mismatched furniture, a turntable in the corner playing classic soul tunes, and a picture glass window that looks out onto a slow-moving river.

Restaurant owner Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) -- and what a lovely man he is -- has his own problems to deal with. His rich and beautiful girlfriend (Pheline Roggan) is moving to Shanghai for a job. His no good brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu), is out of jail on a day parole; he is looking for a job -- at the restaurant, naturally. Zino’s customers wants fried fish. His eccentric new chef (Birol Ünel) will serve only gourmet cuisine. An unscrupulous realtor wants to shut the place down. And to top it off, Zino’s back goes out. And then out again. Out, out, out.

Everything that can go wrong for Zino does go wrong. Health inspectors, tax collectors, mutineering customers, and more. Much more. The jokes in Soul Kitchen keep on coming, relentless and unapologetic. They may be obvious, but they are also funny: watch and laugh and groan. Laugh some more.

Akin has assembled a terrific cast of likable character: Zinos especially with his shaggy hair and leather jacket. The women in his life-- unreliable girlfriend, acerbic barmaid, wide-eyed chiropractor -- are smart and beautiful, always unpredictable. The chef throws knives. The music is good. The food looks gorgeous. Soul Kitchen is a delicious treat, no less wonderful and worthy than Akin’s earlier work.

Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Adam Bousdoukos, Birol Unel, Dorka Gryllus
Directed by: Fatih Akin
Produced by: Klaus Maeck, Fatih Akin
Running Time: 1 hr. 39 min.
Release Date: August 20th, 2010 (limited)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributors: IFC Films