A Touch of Spice
Starring: George Corraface, Ieroklis Michailidis, Renia Louizidou, Tamer Karadagli
Director: Tassos Boulmetis
The film: A Greek visual feast with powerful drama as the main course and sophisticated humour as a side dish, A Touch of Spice is a nostalgic film as much about people's suffering during turbulent political times as delicate Mediterranean cuisines.
Written by director Tassos Boulmetis, the film's primary subject is spices - a kitchen essential with strong cultural and political undertones.
Spices are what remind the main character, Fanis - a little Greek boy uprooted from his birthplace in Istanbul - who he is and where he comes from. It's a pinch of cinnamon that gives him a bittersweet taste of first love. It's a little pepper that helps him understand the unchangeable rules of the cosmos. And it's salt that teaches him that, despite his yearnings, life often has its own will.