Soul Kitchen

In this comedy film from 2009, Fatih Akin tells the story of a group of people fighting against the gentrification of their neighborhood. Akin likes to call Soul Kitchen a modern “heimatfilm”: It is about “family and friends, about love, trust, and loyalty – and about the fight for home as a place that needs protection from a world that is increasingly becoming unpredictable.”

Zinos, the proprietor of the down-to-earth restaurant Soul Kitchen in a run-down neighborhood, has a streak of bad luck: His girlfriend is going abroad for several months, he himself suffers from a herniated disk and has no health insurance, his brother who has been released from prison, asks Zinos for a favor, and a property shark wants to cheat him out of the restaurant. After some bedlam and a few painful changes, the characters have a lot to look forward to: Thanks to a new chef and a waiter’s rock band, Soul Kitchen has become hip and popular.