User reviews

Director Faith Akin is often called one of the most important contemporary German directors to have emerged in recent years. Soul Kitchen is Akin' highly anticipated first attempt at a genuine comedy. So far Akin has been has been more involved in the fields of drama and romance. In a recent interview he revealed he was curious to explore a more varied range of film genres which sounds like an interesting plan. In venice this year, the film was celebrated by the audiences and scored the special jury price.

The story revolves around a restaurant/club called Soul Kitchen and the troublesome life of its respectful owner Zinos. He has to overcome many struggles involving his girlfriend, his brother and the authorities. The film is set in the heart of the diverse northern German city of Hamburg, the home turf of the two scribes Faith Akin and Adam Bousdoukos.

The makers of the film call it a new take on the idea of the "Heimatfilm" - a rather preconceived loose genre which basically defines a film to have been made in the makers home country and dealing with issues relating to home and identity.

Akin described how he studied classical sketches by Charlie Chaplin and also looked at his method of working. A simple "joke" that comes off easy and natural on screen had been reworked over and over. For some of the scenes Akin admittedly said he had to shoot 30 takes before it felt right. This made him doubt his own abilities but in the end let him grow as a filmmaker and as an individual.

The result is a stellar solid performance by the entire cast. Many jokes and payoffs will unfortunately and without a doubt get lost in translation but still the timing and heartblood of the actors will still capture anyone's attention.

Akin makes use of a couple of his "regulars": Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu and the great Birol Ünel but also introduces fresh unknown blood with the two female leads Lucia Faust and Nadine Krüger.

Having just seen another film recently I noticed myself how well this film is balanced out in comparison. There is a rhythm, a beat or a harmony. The soundtrack and editing allow the plot to flow organically and let the narrative play out smoothly. Interestingly Akin once mentioned that since "Gegen die Wand" (Head On, 2004) he is inspired by the songs used in his films in a visual way and sets out a soundtrack before the filming is finished.

The film marks Akin's first shot at wider levels of improvisation. Normally, he said in an interview with a German radio station, he has the script all planned out in detail; all the actors know what their dialogues are and maybe one or two things get changed, with feedback from the people on set but this time a lot of things were left undone on purpose to grow naturally out of the situations.

What I personally enjoyed a lot about Soul Kitchen is the way in which the film addresses its urban environment. Akin took a chance to shoot in a wide range of locations, many of which such the club "Mojo" have since closed down. It attempts to capture the spirit of the city at a point in time and successfully tells an emotional, personal story.

Recommended to anyone with a passion for fresh, clever and funny stories of life and the city.

It very rare these times to see a comedy that is not slapstick -funny (trying to extort in some ways the laughter from the audiences) but truly funny in a way that is sweet and charming. I will not talk about the director's previous work because this is a completely new genre for him, and in any case this is not an overall overview of his films. This one stands alone as an example for some people in Hollywood. It is not funny because it exploits some racial stereotypes (no mousaka here) but because it creates a subtle caricature of situations that many of us have experienced (i.e. the one with the tax collectors). The script is very smart and full of reversals of fate that keep the spectators on their toes, the main characters are interesting and the acting wonderful... And because no one mentioned the soundtrack...It is truly unique..Too bad that many of the songs are in Greek and the deeper meaning of the lyrics and their connection to the plot is lost in translation. A must see film for everyone that wants to see a feel-good movie with an actual plot..

Faith Akin is best known for his dark, serious films ('Head On', 'The Edge of Heaven', 'Short Sharp Shock', 'Crossing the Bridge: The Sounds of Istanbul', etc) so it is somewhat surprising to find he has such a deft touch for comedy. SOUL KITCHEN languished for a while before Akin decided that 'life is not only about pain and introspection', and so he turned his rather formidable talents to creating this new film - a comedy about food, family and gentrification. He co-wrote the script with star Adam Bousdoukos in a manner that mirrors his other works: people from other countries (Akin is Turkish raised in Germany, Bousdoukos is Greek raised in Germany) can assimilate without losing the unique treasured aspects of their ethnicity.

The setting is Hamburg where Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) owns a grungy but popular with the locals restaurant, Soul Kitchen, serving quickly prepared frozen foods to a gastronomically unsophisticated clientele. Zinos is also a romantic, struggling with his conflict to join his journalist girlfriend Nadine (Pheline Roggan) who wants Zinos to accompany her to her latest living assignment in Shanghai, but being afraid to leave his beloved restaurant. Zinos decides to stay in Hamburg -opening the door for other factors to enter Zinos' life: he encounters a fired chef Shayn (Birol Ünel) whose cranky disposition can't hide the fact that he is a brilliant chef in need of work (Zinos hires him!), an old friend Thomas Neumann (Wotan Wilke Möhring) who has become a real estate entrepreneur want to buy Zinos' old building, Zinos' ne're-do-well brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu) is in prison but can get leaves if Zinos with be his patron for a work-release program, a new crowd of jazz music lovers and partygoers flood the premises, etc. All of these ingredients, including the staff of the restaurant Lucia (Anna Bederke), funky old Sokrates (Demir Gökgöl), and Lutz (Lukas Gregorowicz), blend together to produce harrowing but hilarious results. In the end the transformations of Soul Kitchen emphasize the importance of family and living a dream, and the despite the many pratfalls Zinos encounters, the changes all come out in the wash for the better.

This cast manages to exude a love for life that makes the move soar above others, despite the usual at times crude jokes and situations. It just bubbles, and a fine part of that effervescence is from the music score.

Grady Harp

With films like Against the Wall, Crossing the Bridge and The Edge of Heaven, Faith Akin has set a high aesthetic bar at which his newest work inevitably stumbles. Which is not to say that the film is a failure by any means, simply that it must be judged as a minor work in this impressive directors oeuvre.

Set in Hamburg's seedy demi-monde, the film relates the fortunes of the Soul Kitchen restaurant and its unhappy-go-lucky proprietor, with a protein-rich narrative arc from wretched normality through multiple adversities to a slightly more hopeful normality. And while the restaurant moves up-scale gastronomically the story remains comfort food throughout, providing plenty of opportunities for comic set pieces and tragi-comic misunderstandings.

What we end up with is a patchwork of scenes, connected by a narrative strand that connects property speculation, prostitution, drugs and music. None of it quite makes sense, but this is a film ruled by the heart and not the head. What it lacks in precision it makes up for in warmth.

In general the performances are impressive, and the unavoidable Moritz Bleibtreu (who seems to be compulsory casting in any German film worth its salt) is particularly engaging as the protagonist's jailbird brother, constantly swinging his prayer beads as hustles.

The film's lightness of touch is perhaps its saving grace: the music complements the story without dominating; food and cookery play a subordinate, if enjoyable role, but never do we get too bogged down in the niceties of nouvelle cuisine. And this must be the first major film in which Skype plays such a major role. Product placement perhaps but very realistically done.

Another enjoyable aspect is the way in which the interplay of cultures - Greek, Turkish, German, whatever - is handled in a no-nonsense workmanlike way. Perhaps it takes a German of Turkish extraction to do this. My feeling is that other German directors would be more sheepish in their handling of these issues.

In conclusion I'd say that the film is good, not great, and shows that Faith Akin can also make a gentle, feel-good comedy without compromising his higher aesthetic achievements.

Great movie, fast and fresh, the kind of fun the movies are supposed to be.

The characters are real and dynamic, the sites are beautiful, interiors and exteriors, although in industrial area, they feel warm and cozy after some time.

The action never loses pace.

I am trying to find now other movies from the same director and/or lead actor.

It is refreshing in a way Guy Ritchie is, you wait for the next movie because you expect the same feeling.

The reason I picked this up was that I had read/heard somewhere that this had inspired the movie 'Ustad Hotel' in 'malayalam' which I had enjoyed.

Having seen excellent movies like The Trap/Troubled Water/L' Infante recently, I was not extremely impressed by this one but at the same time the movie is young and lovable.

There are some original humor sequences.You may like the movie a whole lot or the movie may not touch you at all - depending on your frame of mind while you watch this.

I liked the main protagonist of the movie. The back ache that he carries through out movie somehow aches your back as well while you watch the movie!. He goes easy on various people - letting his employees practice music in his dying restaurant , letting his tenant stay off rent , letting his brother run the business etc.That is how the main protagonist has been built.

The movie is filled with short easy sequences - a nice watch.

Faith Akin, the director, presents a beautiful Hamburg, creates again diverse and strong characters, in a film that returns him to the genre of comedy, and all of these surrounded with an amazing soundtrack. I enjoyed very much this film, the scenography and music is lovely, I could laugh a lot, which is not very common in the recent Akin films such as Gegen die Wand or The Edge of Heaven, which were exquisite, but in a more dramatic and touching way. This film is somehow a return to the soul of much more than a kitchen. Is a sight into the soul of music, food, purpose in life and people indeed. I highly recommend this film, especially for those who, like me, had a great time seeing Im Juli, some years ago.

You could be excused, if by hearing the title, you'd thought this is yet another "urban" comedy, starring Martin Lawrence or Ice Cube or Queen Latifah. It ain't so. While the title might be misleading (in quite a few ways), the characters in this aren't. You have finely structured people (with a cliché here and there), who seem to have their everyday problems and find a way to live with them.

Our main character has quite a few struggles to go through this movie, some of them come "back" at him (no pun intended). And while quite a few things are more than cliché (the brother and what he does towards the end, is borderline believable, even with the setup through the movie), it has quite a few nice touches to it. All in all, a warm comedy, that goes more for the heart than the brain. A nice change of pace by Faith Akin and a movie, whose flaws shouldn't hinder you enjoying it.

This movie was a "delicious" movie with a "soul".l recommend this movie to everyone who would like to go to the movies just for having a 1,5 hour of fun and who needs some hope about life. This movie was the best and funniest movie of Faith Akin, l think he will be a world famous director in a couple years if he keeps to continue. The favorite three of Faith Akin (Adam Bousdoukus,Moritz Blibtreu and Birol Unel)were great again.l would like to also mention about Anna Bederke's performance, l think she was also acting great and she will be a famous movie star soon. The only thing which l can criticize is the ending of the movie, it was in compliance with the scenario however l felt that the ending was incomplete and carelessly done. The jokes and the movie itself were great and clever.l recommend this movie to everyone who would like to watch something different and delicious in the cinema.

This frothy, light, slightly shapeless but endearing comedy is further proof of the protean nature of Akin's amazing talents.

While nowhere near as good a film as his great, dark comedy-drama 'Head On' or his complex. philosophical 'The Edge of Heaven', I appreciate that Akin seems more interested in exploring different genres and stories than creating a signature style.

This is the kind of comedy that makes you smile more than laugh, and is stronger on character and acting than on comic set pieces, but even the jokes that don't work aren't annoying.

A shaggy, likable young Greek man living in Germany tries to start his own restaurant, juggling his ex-con brother, his out-of town girlfriend, his slightly insane chef, and a rival who wants to take over his space. It's not an 'important' film, but it captures something wonderful about being young and trying to find your place in the world.

Likable and fast-moving feel-good tragicomedy which sometimes veers closely toward those annoyingly busy and loud German comedies with their succession of silly and overcooked set-pieces, based on all too well-known clichés.

The predictable plot surely breaks no new ground and strains credulity from time to time, but at least it's all in good spirit. The actors find the right balance between comedy stereotyping and character drama and the soundtrack and location work are especially fine.

Just like all of Akin's "lighter" pics, this one's easy to digest but doesn't call for a second course.

6 out of 10 knife throwing chefs

Awared with Special Jury Award in Venice Film Vestival "Soul Kitchen" is one of the best Faith Akin movies (2nd best after "Gegen die Wand" in my book) and an excellent mixture of comedy and drama. The German/Turkish well known director features in Soul Kitchen a story filmed in Hamburg with a strong Greek element. The film depicts excellently life in Hamburg (which is one of the most different and great German cities) in a story that unlike most of Faith Akin's films is not too sad and is in fact quite funny. Moritz Bleibtreu is as always a safe and good choice and in few words this film will probably (if you have some sense of humor) leave you with a big smile in your face.

Grade: A-

I was mesmerized when I watched Head-On back in 2005. It was like a gift as I had not come across with such warm and impressive story especially from Turkish film industry. (Faith Akin is not promoting Turkish cinema 100% but still counts). The Edge of Heaven followed this and it was still an enjoyable movie despite its flaws. I really like Soul Kitchen as this is the first comedy made by the director but it will not be my favourite.

A guy is running a restaurant which serves ready-to-cook stuff and not doing well at all. He is also having personal problems since his girlfriend is moving to China for business purposes. All of a sudden everything changes and his restaurant becomes a big success and trendiest place in town with the touch of a gypsy cook. Then he makes money, his life changes blah blah blah.

Soul Kitchen is not offering a new thing but still has its funny moments. The lead character Adam Bousdoukos is excellent in his role and also Ugur Yucel (Knochenbrecher-Kemal) is so funny with his precious presence in the movie, the rest I have to say that do not add much on to the movie in relation to comedy. They more seem like they are in a drama which unfortunately how Faith Akin directs his film. The scenario was not up to his standards (things happen too fast). My examples the restaurant was not that bad although the food was awful. but business-wise it had a client base and they seemed to be regular. his brother loses everything in one evening although he knows its his only chance to be out of the prison. Restaurant being very popular and it does not seem it becomes very convenient because it serves good food but also for being conveniently located for the students nearby art school.

My main concern about the film is that I watched it as if I was watching another Faith Akin drama but this time forcing you to laugh. I hope Mr. Akin made this movie for fun and will come back with an excellent drama very soon.

Soul Kitchen (2009)

German comedy Slow start but at midway through, With that jazz and soul, We're whisked away by misfits, Fun, tasty, redemptive ride.

Tanka, literally "short poem", is a form of poetry consisting of five lines, unrhymed, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format.

#Tanka #PoemReview

It's a bliss to behold that Faith Akin could return to a IN JULY (2000) route to prepare us for a comedic ratatouille after his tremendously nerve-pressing films HEAD-ON (2004) and THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (2007), prominently known as the fresh blood of the new German film industry, Faith is definitely honing his prowess with multi-genre attempts, though we are still not clear his next feature project (only a documentary called GARBAGE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN is billed under his director helm from IMDb, another genre breakthrough is expected).

SOUL KITCHEN connects intimately with a lavish hue of aesthetics with a down-to-earth register aiming towards modern-day generation, for the likes of a desolate factory-reconstructed- restaurant serving as a default location and night disco dizziness as such. The tempo of the story-unfolding is rapid with fairly abundant of gags and the characterization of different roles is smoothly undergoing without too much mind-absence or self-conscious uneasiness. The story has never been out of its predictable safe zone, but is helped out by an intriguing visual plentifulness.

Alongside Faith, the film is co-scripted by Adam Boysdoukos, who is also the leading actor here. While the acting at large is lukewarm, funny but no amazing bravura, the sole recommendable saving grace is Faith's old mate Birol Ünel, acting as a short-tempered cook, whose screen time is meager but to my appetite.

From an aspect about re-maneuvering his comedic faculty, the most delightful discovery is Faith's multi-faceted flair in exerting a film's audience-friendly mode which assures both its viewers and its financial investors that any work labelled his name tag will not be a reckless train gone amok, if Faith could trawl a potent script and cast (or write one like HEAD-ON, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN), his harvest season by all odds will not be a long shot.

It is has been said that Fatih Akin is known for dark, serious movies and that Soul Kitchen is anomaly. That simply isn't true, Akin has made comedies and all of his movies, even though rather dark, have comedic overtures.

But be that as it may, this movie has all of Akin's main collaborators including his brother Cem, Moritz Bleibtreu, Adam Bousdoukos, and Birol Unel. The special features, "Making of" explain that Soul Kitchen was in the works for several years and then Gegen die Wand was released. Gegen die Wand went on to be a major award winning film for Akin and he felt the pressure of having to repeat his success.

Soul Kitchen is a more personal story, Adam Bousdoukos owned a Greek (he's Greek-German) restaurant and Fatih worked with him in working on the script. So many of the things that happen in the film are based on Fatih or Adam's experiences. This movie has a serious yet juvenile tone, something that his earlier comedy, "Im Juli" doesn't necessarily have. Soul Kitchen comes the closest to what we Americans would identify with in a comedy.

Akin is known for giving very little direction to his actors and actresses, so what you see in Soul Kitchen is often a mix of acting and real life. And since many of the same people appear in multiple Akin films, most of them are familiar with one another and with Akin.

The acting in this movie is on par. Adam Bousdoukos is a strong comedic lead that helps bring life to this movie. Moritz Bleibtreu is great as Adam's brother; his range is amazing from Das Experiment, Lola Rennt, Im Juli, and Soul Kitchen to name a few. Then you have Birol Unel, who is magic as the eccentric master chef who brings new life to Soul Kitchen.

This is my second review for a film on IMDb. I'm writing only when I like a film very much. And, I'm writing only when I'm inspired to write something original, not just to recount again and again the plot, as do so many here on IMDb... This film is successful in all respects, great script, great cinematography, great everything. The actors, all simply compete against each other by their natural talent. The music is just fantastic. Being an actor myself, I would gladly like to film with Faith Akin, he's simply a guy who knows his job. Several years ago I watched HEAD-ON. Recently I saw also THE CUT, another masterpiece signed Faith Akin, so I know what I'm saying. 10 out of 10.

Greek-German Zinos Kazantsakis operates the rundown working-class Wilhelmsburg restaurant Soul Kitchen. He has money struggles. Sokrates works on his boat in the adjacent storage but never seems to pay Zinos rent. During a family dinner at a high-class restaurant, he sees arrogant chef Shayn getting fired and hires him on the spot. His girlfriend Nadine leaves for China and later he decides to go to her. His convict brother Illias gets leave from prison and convinces Zinos to sign off on work release. Zinos hurts his back trying to move in a replacement dishwasher. With no health insurance, he gets help from physical therapist Anna. Tax collectors confiscate his sound system. Shayn changes the menu driving away the regulars. Former classmate and sleazy developer Thomas Neumann wants to buy the restaurant and secretly calls in the health department. New customers love the food and soon it becomes a gastronomical success. Waitress Lucia hates Illias until she finds out that he's a bad boy criminal. He's a degenerate gambler but Zinos gives him power of attorney.

The story is a bit rambling with a lot of turns. It's got a jazzy rocking feel. It works well enough. It's got its fun. The jam-packed story may work even better as a TV show. As for the food porn aspect, the most memorable scene is Shayn taking apart fish sticks and french fries to create a high-class plate.

This film started so well that it was beginning to look like a hidden gem, a classic in the making. I give this film 5 stars out of 10, but I have to say that the 5 stars are for the first 30 minutes, which were so well done. The remaining 60 minutes deserve a zero.

The comedy is not funny. Slapstick and cheap laughs. Everything is so predictable that we were trying to take bets on the story in the middle of the film, but no one wanted to take any bets. We were all on the same page and guess what? Every single thing we predicted happened. Predicting one thing or another is fine, but not everything.

The movie just drags and drags without direction. You're not sure if it's a story of two Greek brothers, a story of a couple, a story of another couple or a story of a restaurant and a rag-tag team of staff that turn a failure around.

Everything is so contrived you wouldn't believe it. Sometimes in life you can make decisions or take actions that COULD lead to something bad happening. There is that risk in life. But in this film characters take "chances" that almost guarantee an unwanted event. As in, the director wants this event to happen so he has to find a sure-fire way to make it happen. So the characters take actions to ensure this event, even though it is not in their personality to do so.

The expression Americans now use is "because script." People do things that don't make any logical sense in their world, but it makes sense "because script" says so. There was also one bit of incredibly amateur screen writing - a character in another country knew a piece of information that (s)he could not have known in real life (unless they had access to the script somehow!).

The music scenes are too long, some reviewers say "the female characters are flat and without depth" - well you gotta take a closer look at the male characters, friends, because they're cardboard caricatures just the same.

The cinematography and camera work were really good. Locations too. But you can't get too many points for that.

It's a wanna-be feel-good movie that fails terribly at making you feel good or at entertaining you in most ways.

Hopefully someone takes the idea from the first 30 minutes and does something else with it.

Above all, Faith Akın's* "Soul Kitchen" seems to be a look at present-day Germany. Greek-German restaurant owner Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) represents one of the many ethnicities now making up German society. He tries to make his way in life despite problems like a lack of health insurance and the risk of the restaurant getting shut down and sold to the highest bidder (not to mention that his girlfriend has left him).

All in all, Angela Merkel may have said that Multikulti has failed, but the ethnic mix is certain to stay. Obviously, there are plenty of lunatics who act as if the growing Muslim presence in European countries is a threat to civilization (the man who just blew up the building and opened fire in a camp in Norway is one such person). Fortunately, it's safe to say that the Bundesrepublik Deutschland is not going to revert to a Nazi government. A really interesting movie.

Also starring Moritz Bleibtreu (the boyfriend in "Run Lola Run"), Birol Ünel and Monica Bleibtreu.

*Fatih Akın's surname has an undotted I, a letter that appears in Turkish.

A true "enjoying life" movie full of food, music and a little chaos! The lead role is played by a man named Zinos, who is trying to save his life for a restaurant, but somehow things don't go well and he constantly finds himself in a dead end. Zinos struggles with the problem that the food is great but the number of customers is not "fantastic" in a small restaurant in Berlin. In other words, it's the kind of situation they say, "The food is great, but I can't find the right people." A restaurant is a place where everything has a beginning and an end. While running the place, Zinos realizes that the restaurant, like his life, is in constant chaos. Of course, Zinos's not-so-good business will worry not only the waiters and the chef, but also his ex-girlfriend, his family, and even his brother, the only person who helps him in life. After all, wouldn't it be great if he could fix his own life while trying to fix the restaurant? The food in the movie is on one side, Zinos' relationship problems, financial troubles and the strange but entertaining variety of customers that come to his restaurant are on the other... Soul Kitchen is not exactly the story of a "turning point", but it is actually a comedy in which Zinos hits every corner and tells his hilarious journey. Indeed, every event that happens to Zinos is somehow like saying "okay" to the most difficult questions of life. While the restaurant is packed to the brim on the one hand, Zinos is also trying to reconcile with his ex-lover, reconcile with his brother and cope with all the throws the restaurant throws at him. A restaurant where the food should always be great but it never gets to be "super"! After all, Zinos' life and restaurant are just like his customers - unexpected, colorful, entertaining and just as complicated. The joke of the movie is right there: "Life is just like a menu; sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, but it can never be boring." Zinos' life is like his customers' food orders: a chaotic past mixed into a glass, a little accidentally spilled love, hesitantly sweetened regrets and a pinch of disappointment on top. But Zinos manages to clear these up every time without taking them too seriously. In other words, Soul Kitchen is actually a "life assessment" film made with a nice meal (or a movie). The characters are strange, but equally sincere and entertaining. Zinos' restaurant may never get a Michelin star, but no one will ask him "what flavor do you add to your life?" Because despite everything, he somehow enjoys everything.