Soul Kitchen. The story first part - the book before the film
Soul Kitchen. The story first part - the book before the film is a novel by Jasmin Ramadan . The work, which was published by Blumenbar in 2009 and is the author’s first publication, tells the story of Fatih Akın’s comedy film Soul Kitchen (2009). Only a few days after the successful film release, the first edition of the novel was already sold out . New editions followed at Blumenbar and Dumont .
Emergence
The creation of the novel goes back to the initiative of the Soul Kitchen director. Fatih Akın wished that his girlfriend, Jasmin Ramadan, would “literarily accompany” the film in some form since her youth. In 2006, Ramadan received the Hamburg Cultural Authority's Prize for Literature for the beginning of her novel A Penguin on the Antenna , which has not yet been published. When developing Soul Kitchen , Akin gave the author a free hand (from the cookbook to the novel epic, anything was possible) , who he gave early insight into the script written by Adam Bousdoukos and himself. However, due to the deadline pressure (the book was supposed to be published on the day of the world premiere of the film), the work was created in just ten months. The author stated that she liked to have more time for her literary debut.
content
Zinos of Greek origin lives with his family in Hamburg-Altona. He experiences how his big brother goes to prison, his parents return to Greece and he himself mutates into a "wobbly anti-type" due to his insanity, which the girls don't exactly chase after. A life-threatening self-discovery trip leads Zinos, who is haunted by bad luck in love affairs, etc. a. to his aunt on the small Greek island of Miostollorikiossinissossios, in a Hamburg brothel and on the Caribbean island of Adios, which only looks like a dream at first glance. Finally, Zinos has to realize that childhood is over and that he finally has to take responsibility for himself and his life. Back in Hamburg he begins to run a lower class restaurant, the “Soul Kitchen”, whose regular customers are supposed to ensure his survival. With Nadine, the first woman Zinos falls in love with, who is neither “narcissistic, mendacious, labile, drug addict, crazy or a hooker”, happiness in love finally seems to come about.
In her book, Ramadan not only interweaves Akin's film fictions with her own, but also reality. "Soul Kitchen !? Great, Digger, great, great, great! ”Says the character Fatih (= Fatih Akın), who is strangely interested in Zinos, when she learns about the hero's restaurant plans.
background
Wherever possible, the director Akin tries to have his films accompanied by books. Ramadan's novel, however, as well as the novel The Daughter of the Blacksmith by Selim Özdoğan, which was recommended in On the Other Side , or the novel of the same name by the same author from Akins In July , is not the model for the film and therefore not a “book about the film” in the conventional sense . At Soul Kitchen is according to its subtitle rather "the book before the movie" and "the history of the first part." In fact, it was released on September 10, 2009 months before the German theatrical release of the comedy of the same name, which was planned for Christmas 2009, and tells the story “between coming of age and road movie ” only.
Before the film started in Germany, readings from the novel with Philipp Baltus , the speaker of the audio book version, and the author took place, partly in the presence of Akin . Baltus can also be seen in a role in the film. The author presented an invitation to the Harbor Front literature festival in Hamburg. The work was “an equally absurd and philosophical big city comedy” and Ramadan “succeeded in building a special bridge with its debut [...] [...]. The characters in the book are interwoven with those in the film in a unique way, the characters build on each other directly. ” The world announced the book presentation by Soul Kitchen as one of the highlights of the literature festival. The Hamburger Abendblatt stated: "Seldom has a debutante's reading been so stormed: In the fully occupied bunker club, almost 400 young spectators cheered [...] when actor Philipp Baltus parodied Akin's Altona Digger-Alder dialect in a fabulous and hilarious manner" . Further readings and a. in the Literaturhaus Salzburg and at the Frankfurt Book Fair followed and followed.
Voices and reviews
Franz Dobler reviewed the novel for the Junge Welt under the heading “A truck full of talent” and was enthusiastic about Ramadan's debut novel: “Even a blind illiterate would have noticed on three pages that the Hamburg author Jasmin Ramadan is an incredible talent”. The fear that "Ramadan could disappear next to this massive Akin [...]" he had "forgotten from page eight". The novel was "written with a stylish ease even in the toughest depths, without cuddling up to a reader or a somewhat relaxed literary scene". Dobler concludes his review: “But what do we wish the esteemed Fatih Akin? That he's dressed warm enough for his new film, which opens here on December 25th. To be able to keep up with the novel by Jasmin Ramadan. "
Akin called the finished novel "the missing piece of the puzzle" for his film. Ramadan tell “wonderful stories” that are “very funny, very sad, very frivolous”.
The German press agency reported an unrestrained, often contradicting world of ideas in the novel. Fatih Akın "apparently not only has a knack for discovering acting talent, but also women writers."
Maike Schiller from Hamburger Abendblatt particularly praised the work's “character guidance” and its tone of voice: “light, warm-hearted and pointed”. Anyone who has read Soul Kitchen would also have “added value when going to the cinema later” - although both works also functioned completely independently of one another. The combination of film and book or audio book in this way is a novelty in the German-speaking area.
Ulrich Noller (WDR) presented the novel as a “book tip” at Funkhaus Europa and also highlighted the “funny idea”, “a book about the film that doesn't just tell the story of the film, but also illuminates the previous story of the main character. "Here it is as an" own and independent work of art: great written, well-plotted, funny narration, varied design - and full of warmth for the well-made, lively figures. "
Nina Berendonk from the Süddeutsche Zeitung also emphasized the independence of the book about the “rapid, extremely imaginative growing up of a modern Alexis Sorba”. In her opinion, it also works "wonderfully well and also provides a suitable, sometimes almost philosophical recipe for each chapter."
Klaus Irler from the daily newspaper also reviewed the book positively and found words of admiration for the author's writing skills in particular. The protagonist Zinos given by Akin is “a harmless sympathy, he would never carry a novel or a film on his own. So the effects of the environment have to be made strong. And that's how Hamburg gets its appearance: brothels! Rich daughters from Harvestehude! Drugs! And later, when Zinos is no longer in Hamburg, but in the Caribbean: magic. Planned mosquitoes! A hotel in which there is nothing right! It all sounds ridiculous and is as over the top as the film, but what Jasmin Ramadan definitely manages is to strike a balance between the weak hero and the strong environment. When Zinos' stumbling along gets boring, life calls in and when life exaggerates, Zinos puts on a Prince record. That makes “Soul Kitchen” a confident book: Life is fine. At least if you have a bit of zinos in you. "
In addition to numerous other positive press reviews, a rather undecided assessment of the Goethe-Institut is pretty much alone. The first part of the story is a debut novel, and according to the reviewer Anne Haeming that is also noticeable. On the one hand, the story is "cumbersome, as if freshly pulled from the frying fat". On the other hand, "the" prequel "is at least as rich as a fatty portion of french fries, even in the positive. Because one has to credit Ramadan's fictional history with the fact that it gives the characters of the film an additional profile. The biography of the film heroes: an idea with charm. It tells how they became what they are - and thereby gives the film characters a depth that they would not have without the book. It is "the missing piece of the puzzle," said Akin. Sure, the two works, book and film, work quite independently. But in the end, it is Ramadan's book that is actually able to convey the basic feeling of “Soul Kitchen”: with lovingly compiled recipes, always one for each phase in Zino's life. And honestly: You don't want to be without the “Adios casserole” afterwards, ”concludes Haeming conciliatory.
Award
Although the film Soul Kitchen , for which the book was made, is a film adaptation of an original script, it was shortlisted as one of four titles for the best international literary film adaptation at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009, which was due to the prequel presented by Ramadan in Roman form was established. Juergen Boos underpinned the decision he identified as an "experiment":
“This film is exciting for me because it shows how the industries are growing together - blogs, pictures, original sounds, it is tweeted. In “Soul Kitchen” by Fatih Akin, book and film are created together and influence each other. The great thing is that the book, which deals with the genesis of the film, is being published by a literary publisher [...]. "
Web links
Single receipts
- ↑ DPA: Film: Fatih Akin celebrated in his hometown. In: Focus Online . September 20, 2009, accessed October 14, 2018 .
- ↑ - ( Memento from September 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from September 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Frank Keil: After reading at the counter. In: welt.de . September 13, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article1192348/Die-Seele-des-Festivals-sehen-sich-im-Kleinen.html
- ↑ http://www.literaturhaus-salzburg.at/programm/index.cfm?Detail=4404&select_month=0909&autorid=1775 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.jungewelt.de/beilage/art/2183
- ↑ http://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article1187539/Diese-Frau-macht-Fatih-Akins-Soul-Kitchen-schmackhaft.html
- ↑ http://www.funkhauseuropa.de/service/buchtipps/2009/ramadan_090916.phtml
- ↑ https://www.taz.de/1/archiv/digitaz/artikel/?ressort=ku&dig=2010%2F01%2F05%2Fa0185&cHash=edb6fb5f27
- ↑ http://www.goethe.de/kue/flm/far/de5100508.htm
- ↑ https://www.fr.de/kultur/dialog-ueber-menschenrechte-ermoigte-11532146.html
