Soul Kitchen

Hamburgers of Hamburg - Moritz Bleibtreu and Adam Bousdoukos in Soul Kitchen
 
Time Investment: 99 min.
Return on Investment: 89 min.
 
What happens when a schlubby Greek slacker, an alcoholic Nazi chef and a gambling-addicted jailbird go into business together? You get Soul Kitchen (IFC Films), German filmmaker Fatih Akin’s goofy ode to youth, gentrification and food in Hamburg that won the Special Jury Prize at last year’s Venice International Film Festival.
 
In the rundown neighborhood of Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg (with every relation possible to Williamsburg, Brooklyn you can think of), Zinos Kazantsakis (Adam Bousdoukos) runs his craptastic bohemian dive, Soul Kitchen, named for the type of music he likes but sadly not the food he serves. That is, until he brings on self-important and self-destructive chef Shayn (Birol Ünel), whose menu revisions slowly bring about a revision in the restaurant, and before long—with help from Zinos’ paroled brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu)—Soul Kitchen is the coolest place in town. So it’s no surprise an old friend turned developer sets his sights on buying the place—at any cost.
 
Soul Kitchen is like a German version of Empire Records, that teen ensemble film about a quirky indie record store in the ’90s. Basically, naïve young adults not realizing how good they’ve got it until it’s gone and then doing whatever they can to get it back (“whatever” being a farce of epic proportions). Sure, it’s a typically American setup, but Soul Kitchen is a pretty Americanized import, and a charming one at that.
—Benjamin Solomon