A Touch of Spice

Fanis was born in Istanbul. He is the child of a Greek family and grows up in his grandfather Vasilis's spice shop. His grandfather teaches him the spices; he explains that each answers to a planet and to a person. Cooking is a form of knowledge. Then politics intervenes. The family is sent to Greece; the grandfather stays and promises to follow. Fanis grows up in Athens, studies astrophysics and never leaves the kitchen. His grandfather never comes. Thirty five years later news arrives and Fanis returns to Istanbul. Tasos Boulmetis writes and directs. Georges Corraface and Ieroklis Michaelidis are in the cast. It is a Greek and Turkish co-production. Its ground is real; in 1964 Greek nationals were expelled from Turkey and many families were divided. The director's own family left Istanbul in that period. The film reached one of the highest box office figures in Greece to that date. Its form is built through the kitchen; the sections are named after stages of a meal. The cooking of Istanbul is treated as a question of identity and belonging to neither side is taken as a direct subject. Part of it was shot in Istanbul. Its limit is register; the narrative leans on nostalgia and the political ground is taken into an emotional frame. Another limit is structure; there are many jumps in time and the middle stretch comes apart. Who it is for: viewers who like Greek cinema, narratives grounded in food, and stories of Istanbul. Who it is not for: the nostalgic register dominates, the pace is slow, and the history is softened.