Soul Kitchen

Soul Kitchen



(This film is in German with English subtitles)


Celebrated filmmaker Fatih Akin, known for celebrated dramas like HEAD-ON and THE EDGE OF HEAVEN, serves up a delightfully fresh comedy with his latest award-winning film. SOUL KITCHEN is a delicious, free spirited story of food, friends, and rock & roll, winner of the Special Jury Prize and the Young Cinema Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, and a smash with audiences at the Toronto and Tribeca film festivals.

SOUL KITCHEN film centers on a likable but hopelessly disorganized restauranteur, Zinos (co-screenwriter Adam Bousdoukos) whose cafe is second home to a motley crew of lovable eccentrics. When his girlfriend Nadine up and moves to Shanghai, a love-sick Zinos decides to fly after her, leaving his restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother Illias. Both decisions turn out disastrous: Illias gambles away the restaurant to a shady real estate agent, and Zinos finds Nadine with a new lover. If the brothers can stop arguing and get it together, the Soul Kitchen might still have one last chance at staying in business. The mayhem that follows is a hilariously entertaining story of self-realization, set to an irresistibly soulful soundtrack


Running Time
Rating
99 minutes
14-A
Release to VHS and DVD: T.B.A.


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Awards




Venice Film Festival Winner: Special Jury Prize

Venice Film Festival Winner: Young Cinema Awards

Venice Film Festival Nomination: Golden Lion

German Film Awards Nomination: Best Editing

German Film Awards Nomination: Best Film





The Critics Comment




New york Times/Stephen Holden
Its insistent zaniness makes Soul Kitchen very different in spirit from Mr. Akin's two previous films, "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven," which established him as a major European filmmaker. Seriously silly, it evokes the same high-spirited, pan-European multiculturalism in which people of all ages and backgrounds blithely traverse national borders as they aggressively pursue their destinies.

Chicago Reader/J.R. Jones
Akin perfectly captures the antic pace, eccentric personalities, and fickle fortunes of the restaurant game, and his vision of the Soul Kitchen as an all-night bacchanal is irresistible.

Los Angeles Times/Kenneth Turan
There's no denying that Soul Kitchen is a film that delights in contrivance and improbability, but it does so with such a big-hearted sense of fun that it is hard not to be swept away.

Wall Street Journal/Joe Morgenstern
Who knew this German-born Turkish filmmaker could perpetrate a delirious farce-in German and Greek with good English subtitles-that doesn't flag for a single one of its 99 minutes?

Boston Globe/Wesley Morris
This is a party, and you're either having a good time or wondering when Akin is going to get down to business. But for an hour and a half, fun is the business.

NPR/Jeannette Catsoulis
Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin isn't exactly known for slapstick, so Soul Kitchen has the feel of a palate cleanser. After the hard-edged drama of "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven," this boisterous comedy milling with scruffy misfits goes down more easily than an oyster on the half shell.





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