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German Circuit

Posted: January 20, 2010

Soul Kitchen

Director: Fatih Akin
Writer: Fatih Akin
Producers: Klaus Maeck, Fatih Akin

Stars:

• Adam Bousdoukos
• Moritz Bleibtreu
• Birol Unel

Tri-genre: business situation comedy
Story Situation: period-of-adjustment
Satisfaction Rating: excellent
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline:  Young restaurateur Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) is having a bad year.  His Soul Kitchen diner is not catching on, in part because of its location inside a converted warehouse in a run-down part of Hamburg that Zinos shares with Turkish boat builder Sokrates (Demir Gokgol).  Also, his very classy girlfriend Nadine (Pheline Roggan) is moving to Shanghai.  And his ex-burglar brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu), on day leave from prison, insists that Zinos to give him a job but doesn’t want to work.  In desperation, Zinos drafts gypsy cook Shayn (Birol Unel) to create a nouvelle cuisine.  His grumpy neighborhood regulars now start boycotting the new chef.  Zinos develops back trouble.  Then things start looking up when a hip crowd of rockers embrace the revamped culinary menu.  But that doesn’t mend Zinos’ broken heart.  He decides to pursue Nadine to China, leaving the restaurant in the hands of his unreliable brother.  Both decisions turn out disastrous: Illias gambles away the restaurant to shady real estate developer Thomas (Wotan Wilke Mohring) and Nadine has found a new lover!  Meanwhile Illias has taken up with his old criminal buddies while also falling for feisty waitress Lucia (Anna Bederke).  Still, the brothers have one last chance to get back Soul Kitchen if they can just stop arguing and start working as a team.

Comment:  2009 Venice Film Festival Jury Prize

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Indiewood Circuit

Posted: January 2, 2010

Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar
Producers: Esther García

Stars:

Penélope Cruz
Lluís Homar
Blanca Portillo

Tri-genre: noir romance suspense
Story Situation: dangerous love
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline: Mateo (Lluís Homar) lives, lusts and writes in the dark.  He was the victim of a violent car accident fourteen years previously.  Not only did he lose his vision, but also the love of his life, Lena (Penélope Cruz).  He was a movie director and Lena was his leading lady on-set and steamy lover off-set.  But it was a secret passion because Lena was stuck in an intimate relationship with jealous aging tycoon Ernesto (José Luis Gómez).  The situation grows increasingly tense as Lena pulls away from the ever-suspicious Ernesto and into the arms of her true love Mateo … until the accident.

Now, under the pseudonym Harry Caine, Mateo lives a quiet life as a novelist with his past suppressed. But after an unintended drug mishap involving Diego (Tamar Novas), the son of his business partner Judit (Blanca Portillo), Mateo sits vigilantly at his bedside and entertains him by recounting the whole sad tale, revealing his suspcion that the tycoon’s son Ray (Rubén Ochandiano) may have been responsible for the fatal accident and that he may not yet be done with his underhanded deeds.  Then Judit reveals the truth that Diego is Mateo’s own son from their short fling.  Suspicion now turns to her.

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