-By Kevin Lally

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Turkish-German director Fatih Akin has made his reputation with searing, fatalistic dramas like Head-On and The Edge of Heaven, and it’s a bit of a relief to know he’s capable of creating something much lighter and more genial. Not that the young protagonist of Akin’s latest film doesn’t suffer. Greek restaurant owner Zinos Kazantsakis (played by Akin's co-writer, Adam Bousdoukos) has an awful run of bad luck during the course of Soul Kitchen, but his constantly changing fortunes are the good-natured joke in this disarmingly loose and energetic comedy.

The Soul Kitchen of the title is an unpretentious dive in the working-class Wilhelmsburg suburb of Hamburg, where the regulars chow down on basic burgers, fishcakes, potato salad, and mac-and-cheese while listening to soul and funk classics. Zinos is fortunate to have a beautiful, upper-class girlfriend, Nadine (Pheline Roggan), but she’s leaving for a newspaper gig in Shanghai. At Nadine’s farewell dinner at a posh restaurant, Zinos watches as the temperamental chef, Shayn (Birol Ünel), quits in disgust over a customer demanding warm gazpacho. When Zinos wrenches his back trying to move a new dishwater, he hires Shayn, the first step in Soul Kitchen’s bumpy transformation to a trendy hotspot.

A major contributor to the chaos of Zinos’ life is his brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu), a thief on parole who persuades Zinos to give him a bogus restaurant job so he can have extended hours of freedom. Along with the irresponsible Illias, Zinos must deal with a strict health inspector, an uptight tax officer, and his old childhood schoolmate Neumann (Wotan Wilke Möhring), now an aggressive real-estate speculator determined to take over Zinos’ building.
Anyone who’s tried to grow and maintain a small service business will smile and cringe at the ups and downs of Zinos’ odyssey. When a dance school opens next-door, suddenly Shayn’s upscale cuisine—rejected by Zinos’ regulars—becomes a local sensation and the place is packed. But Zinos’ newfound success is placed in jeopardy when he decides to join his girlfriend in China and signs over the restaurant to Illias.

Lead actor and co-writer Bousdoukos, who starred in two of Akin’s early short films, was an actual Hamburg restaurateur until last year, and the movie has an effortless authenticity thanks to his input; he also has an appealingly offbeat comic presence. He’s well-paired with top German star Bleibtreu, who makes Illias charming and likeable despite his obvious ethical shortcomings. Among the standouts in the supporting cast are Ünel as the mercurial Shayne, and attractive newcomer Anna Bederke as the restaurant’s no-nonsense waitress, Lucia.

The zippy narrative gains extra punch from an eclectic music soundtrack featuring American soul classics from the likes of Sam Cooke and Kool and the Gang, ethnic Greek music, and German hip-hop and electronica. Add delectable-looking food and a zany assortment of characters, and you’ve got the recipe for a potential art-house crossover hit.