Soul Kitchen (2009) on Netflix
Zinos runs Soul Kitchen, a shabby Hamburg restaurant in a warehouse that is short of money. His girlfriend Nadine is leaving for Shanghai. His brother Illias can leave prison only to work.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.2/1042,969 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
Soul Kitchen is Zinos Kazantsakis's restaurant, an old warehouse space in Hamburg where he serves working-class food. The place barely makes money: the tax office asks for payments, a punk band rehearses there for free, and an old sailor who keeps a boat in the hall owes rent. Nadine, Zinos's girlfriend, is a journalist preparing to leave for Shanghai. His brother Illias is serving a prison sentence and gets leave to work, so Zinos takes him on over the objections of Lucia, the bartender. Moving a heavy dishwasher, Zinos hurts his back and begins therapy with Anna. He also finds Shayn and hires him as the new cook. Thomas Neumann, a school friend turned real estate man, offers to buy the building.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Soul Kitchen (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Moritz Bleibtreu, Akın's lead in Soul Kitchen, turned down a part in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) because he had already been promised his role in the comedy; Akın himself turned down Hollywood offers to make the film.
- The musician Jan Delay would only decide after a preview whether one of his songs could be used in the film; after seeing it he told Akın, "I don't think you're done yet. The film doesn't have the right groove yet," and Akın then partly re-shot scenes.
- The film's severe horse fall is not staged: it is real footage of rider Katharina Werning's fall at a gallop race in Neuss in early 2008, and the fall forced her to interrupt her career temporarily.
- The Doors' song "Soul Kitchen" was meant to be played in a scene, but the rights to the track were too expensive for Akın, who used a Curtis Mayfield song instead.
- Because actor Birol Ünel read Arthur Rimbaud on set, Rimbaud's line "What cannot be sold will be sold!" was subsequently written into the screenplay of Soul Kitchen.
- Akın filed a lawsuit in early 2010 against Alexander Wallasch, who claimed his debut novel Hotel Monopol had "striking similarities" to Soul Kitchen; Wallasch lost and an injunction against him stayed in place.
- The Soul Kitchen restaurant was built for the film inside a factory building on Industriestraße in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg; since 18 June 2010 the hall has been used for music and cultural events.
- In 2004, while shooting his music documentary Crossing The Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul, Fatih Akın planned to cast Hanna Schygulla as the band's pianist and leading actress in Soul Kitchen.
