Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91426 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Import, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Greek
• Subtitled in: Mandarin Chinese, English
• Dubbed in: German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Customer Reviews

A nostalgic look at the point of origin.
Fanis is a young Greek boy growing up in Istanbul, whose grandfather, who owns a grocery shop, teaches him that both food and life require a little salt to give them flavour. The scene were his grandfather makes a representation of the universe with different spices is inspirational cinematography.

You may say that Fanis' character is the alter ego of Tassos Boulmetis, the film's director, because much of the film is a reflection of his own life. His alter ego in the film is Fanis Iakovidis played by George Chorafas. He's a professor of astronomy at a Greek University. He lives in Palaio Faliro (a neighbourhood of Athens, by the sea, that has many people from Constantinople up to this day). An incident, namely another postponed arrival of his grandfather, provokes memories of growing up in Constantinople with his grandfather who had a spice shop.

When Fanis and his family are deported from Turkey because they are Greek citizens his grandfather and his young friend Saime are left behind. In Greece he and his family are seen as foreigners, not Greek at all. As a result Fanis builds his own world isolating himself, and on the meantime he expresses himself by cooking delicious meals.

I would also like to make a special reference to Fanis uncle Emilios, who is a sailor and he has traveled all over the world and he seems to be the most opened-minded person in the movie. A very well depicted character indeed.

The film becomes extremely interesting when Fanis returns to Constantinople and goes to the places he spent part of his childhood and also meets his first love. A great movie to watch, full of nostalgie giving an objective look in two countries (Greece and Turkey) that have so many historical differences yet they resemble so much.

It just missed the right spice
If your list of favorites movies includes Life is beautiful, Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino; Touch of spice is the perfect movie for you: a over sentimental tale of a boy unable to find himself welcome in the two cities of his life: Istambul and Athens. A turk in Greece and a greek in Turkey, young Fanis can only find himself at home in the kitchen making the recipes that he learned from the women of his family, and from his dear grandfather, who teached him about spices while teaching him about the wonders of the universe.
A love story about a city, Istambul, the movie is a delight while young Fanis is a young boy: the family is loving and funny, and you can almost smell the cooking; but as he grows and turns into a middle age science wiz who can't forget not his childhood city, neither the beautiful girl he left behind; the movie becomes too mellow, too sweet, too predictable.
It just missed the right spice.

The movie has ENGLISH SUBTITLES (in addition to Chinese)
You need to change the options before you play it. I did it by trial and error and it worked fine.