A Touch of Spice (or
Politiki kouzina) is a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
movie released in 2003 directed by Tassos Boulmetis and starring
Georges CorrafaceGeorges Corraface is a Franco-Greek actor who has had an international career in film and television, following many years in French theatre, notably as a member of the famed Peter Brook Company...
as the character of the adult Fanis Iakovides.
The character of Fanis Iakovides as a child is played by Markos Osse and the supporting role of Fanis's grandfather, Vassilis, is played by Tassos Bandis.
The original Greek title is
Πολίτικη Κουζίνα (Politiki Kouzina) which means
Cuisine of the City and refers to the Cuisine of Constantinople - Cuisine tis Polis (now
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
).
A Touch of Spice (or
Politiki kouzina) is a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
movie released in 2003 directed by Tassos Boulmetis and starring
Georges CorrafaceGeorges Corraface is a Franco-Greek actor who has had an international career in film and television, following many years in French theatre, notably as a member of the famed Peter Brook Company...
as the character of the adult Fanis Iakovides.
The character of Fanis Iakovides as a child is played by Markos Osse and the supporting role of Fanis's grandfather, Vassilis, is played by Tassos Bandis.
Name
The original Greek title is
Πολίτικη Κουζίνα (Politiki Kouzina) which means
Cuisine of the City and refers to the Cuisine of Constantinople - Cuisine tis Polis (now
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
). However, in the film's promotional material
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0378897/Ss/0378897/PK_POSTERregular.JPG?path=gallery&path_key=0378897, the word
Politiki of the title is depicted in capital letters, therefore allowing an alternative reading of the title, as
Πολιτική Κουζίνα (Politiki Kouzina) which means
Political Cuisine signifying the important role that politics played in the lives of the main characters.
Plot
Fanis Iakovides, professor of
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
and
astrophysicsAstrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects such as galaxies, stars, planets, exoplanets, and the interstellar medium, as well as their...
, recalls his childhood memories from growing up in
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
. When Fanis was 7 years old, his grandfather Vassilis was an owner of a
general storeThe general store or general merchandise store is a store that carries a general line of merchandise.In Australia, Canada and the United States, a store named or subtitled "general store" is traditionally a retailer located in a small town or in a rural area...
with a specialty in spices. He was also a culinary philosopher and his mentor. Fanis grew very attached to his grandfather who would assist with his homework using imaginative techniques. For instance, Vassilis would teach his grandson the planets of the
Solar SystemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by gravity, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago...
by showing an illustration of it and replacing the planets with spices.
CinnamonCinnamon is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka, or the spice obtained from the tree's bark...
took the place of
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
since according to Vassilis, "like all women, cinnamon is both bitter and sweet". Fanis also fell in love for the first time in his grandfather store's upper floor with a young Turkish girl, Saime.
However, after the start of
Cypriot intercommunal violenceCypriot intercommunal violence refers to periods of inter-ethnic conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on the island of Cyprus from 1930 to 1974.- Background :...
in 1963 and the increasing tension between
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
and
GreeceThe Greek military junta of 1967–1974, alternatively "The Regime of the Colonels" , or in Greece "The Junta", and "The Seven Years" are terms used to refer to a series of right-wing military governments that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974...
, most Greek citizens who lived in Istanbul were deported to Greece, while never having previously resided there. Since Vassilis was the holder of a Turkish passport, he was forced to stay behind while his grandson Fanis and his parents moved to
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
.
Fanis had trouble initially adapting in Greece, constantly trying to spend his time in the kitchen cooking, as it was the only link between him and his homeland. However, this would upset his mother who was afraid that the boy was either severely depressed or a homosexual. Fanis grew from childhood to adulthood, preserving his culinary talents and often offering his secrets of the Politiki Cuisine to those that ask for his help.
As the years passed by, and the tension between Turkey and Greece resolved, grandfather Vassilis made several promises to visit his grandson in Athens but failed to keep them. The reason for the final incompletion of this engagement was his rapidly declining health. Consequently, Fanis returns to Istanbul after three decades to visit his near-death grandfather and also runs into his old love, Saime, who is now married. Together, they reflect on their lives and the way politics managed to change everything.
Fanis will eventually realize that contrary to what his grandfather had taught him, he forgot to put a little bit of spice in his own life.
It should be noted that the main characters easily fit into a parallel metaphor - Saime, the old love of Fanis, a tour guide and a female, represents Istanbul (a cosmopolitan city called a "she" in Greek), Fanis modern Greece that is still in love with Istanbul, and Saime's husband, a Turkish military doctor, modern Turkey.