At a family gathering at an upscale restaurant, Zinos argues with his girlfriend Nadine, a journalist, who is preparing to leave on assignment to Shanghai.

Zinos had hoped to travel to Shanghai to meet Nadine, but the new success of Soul Kitchen causes him to be distracted from maintaining contact with her.

To try to reconcile with Nadine, Zinos plans to leave for Shanghai, after he makes Illias manager of Soul Kitchen and gives him full power of attorney.

In a final desperate move to try to cure his herniated disc, Anna takes Zinos to a chiropractor, Kemal "the Bone Cruncher", whose extreme therapy succeeds.

According to the filmmaker, "our theme is the relationship between brothers"[2] The film is also dedicated "in memory of" Monica Bleibtreu, the actress who died in 2009 and who has "her last major appearance" in the role of Grandma Nadines.

It's about "Family and friends, about love, trust, and loyalty – and about the fight for home as a place that needs to be protected in an increasingly volatile world.

"[4] There are numerous well-known actors from Akin's previous productions in the film, such as Moritz Bleibtreu (Im Juli, Solino) Birol Ünel (Im Juli, Gegen die Wand), and Adam Bousdoukos (Sensin – Du bist es!, Kurz und schmerzlos).

[5] According to Die Welt, director Fatih Akin also supported Hamburg's gang district, which is threatened with destruction, by using around 200 artists in the film.

Juergen Boos underpinned what he called an "experiment" decision:For me, this film is exciting because it shows how the industries are growing together – blogs, pictures, original sounds, it will be tweeted.

At the time, he was the owner of the Greek tavern Sotiris at Barnerstraße 42 in Hamburg-Ottensen and ran the Glam Slam Music Club at Bahrenfelder Straße 237.

According to Akin, however, when Andreas Thiel died shortly before the end of filming The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite), his view of the postponed project changed.

According to the filmmaker, this was the final reason for resuming the Soul Kitchen project:At the end of the trip, we sat in a motel in Albuquerque.

[15] Due to the international success of The Edge of Heaven, Akin had to turn down offers to shoot in Hollywood in order to make the film.

His main actor, Moritz Bleibtreu, even decided not to play in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards (2009) because he had already been promised a role in Soul Kitchen.

[16] Akin filed a lawsuit in early 2010 against Alexander Wallasch, who claimed to have seen "striking similarities" between his debut novel Hotel Monopol and Soul Kitchen.

Also, in the film the audience can hear songs by Quincy Jones, Kool & The Gang, the Isley Brothers, Mongo Santamaría, Markos Vamvakaris, and Jan Delay.

Hans Albers is represented with the hit song "Das letzte Hemd hat leider keine Taschen" (The Last Shirt Unfortunately has no Pockets).

The Süddeutsche Zeitung (The South-German Newspaper) stated: "The real heartbreaker of the festival is (...) the German competition entry."

Long before the start, it was impossible to get into Cinemaxx 1 and 3 even with a ticket, and there were some audience members sitting on the narrow steps of the theater.

Further screenings followed at international film festivals and, until July 2011, there were regular screenings in Turkey, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan, France, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, Slovenia, Portugal, Australia, the Netherlands, Israel, Romania, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Hungary, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, Japan, Argentina, and Hong Kong.

[26] Derek Elley from Variety saw in the film a "love letter to the place (Hamburg) and its people" with partly "explosive comedy", tightly staged and edited.

[citation needed] Peter Zander of Die Welt described the work, which Akin identified as a "dirty heimat film", simply as "indulgence".

[29] A "colorful, eloquent tone (...) that can't find an end to all the gags, relaxed funny" rules in Soul Kitchen for Christina Tilmann from the Berliner Tagesspiegel.

The German Press Agency reported that "good actors, humor bordering on the grotesque, and some situational comedy (...) make up the charm of Soul Kitchen, even if it "at times drifts into slapstick".

Frank Olbert from the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, on the other hand, warned against considering Soul Kitchen only as a feel-good piece because "that would mean reducing it.

"[30] The review of the Frankfurter Rundschau particularly emphasized Birol Ünel, who makes himself "unforgettable as a kind of samurai of the art of cooking" in his scenes.

[31] The 3sat program Kinokino called Soul Kitchen a "totally unpretentious masterpiece" that was "simply great" and agreed with the filmmaker: "a heimat film!

", as did ttt – tiel, thesen, temperamente on ARD, where a satisfied reviewer added: "I experienced what I want to experience on a nice evening at the movies.

[32] ‚'Heimat comedy' is about the search for security in a rapidly changing urban world, one that is less about a place than about being rooted in a community and an attitude towards life.

With verve and a feeling for cinematic space, for music and sometimes bawdy situational comedy, the film rounds off to a harmonious, atmospheric celebration of human cohesion.Akin at the presentation of Soul Kitchen in Vienna (2009).