Casual Critic Mini Reviews

A Touch of Spice (Politiki kouzina) (Greece/Turkey) (Village Roadshow/Capitol Films) (2004) ****1/2Year: 2004iMDB

Director: Tassos Boulmetis Cast: Georges Corraface, Ieroklis Michaelidis, Stelios Mainas, Markos Osse, Tassos Bandis

Food movies really deserve a category of their own. We have comedy/drama/action/etc. but any combination of these denominations fails to capture the essence of movies like Tampopo, Bella Martha, Eat Drink Man Woman or even Chocolat. Therefore, if metaphors about food and life are not among your favorites, be forewarned that by watching A Touch of Spice you may become addicted to yet another genre :).

The movie's original title subtlely describes the movie focus as it can be translated as both "kitchen politics" as well as "Constantinople kitchen". The Iakovidis are a half Greek half Turkish family who is deported from Constantinople as the Turkish/Greek relations turn increasingly sour over the Cyprus conflict. They continue trying to build a normal life, but they are viewed as Turks in Athens, and they also long for their life in "The City". The story of personal and ethnic drama is embedded in a three-course meal allegory, an ode to the subtle importance and need for spices in our lives. We learn that cinnammon is Aphrodite's spice as it is both sweet and bitter, just like a beautiful woman, that salt is the unsung hero which is vital for flavoring our lives and that garlic always needs to be "hidden" in the meal.

Those familiar with the Greek-Turkish conflict and cultures may find faults with the movie. However, director Tassos Boulmetis is almost telling his own life story as himself was a young kid when his family was deported in 1964 from Constantinople to return only 35 years later. For the rest of the viewers, it is a sad, yet beautiful story, anchored in the realities of the past decade, and told in a magic-realism style resembling at times that of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, A very long engagement).