A touch of spice
Tassos Boulmetis
Greece-Turkey, 2003
REVIEWS
A touch of spice is the sotry of Fanis, a young Greek Boy growing up in Istanbul, whose grandfather, a culinary philosopher and mentor, teaches him that both food and life require a little salt to give him a favor. Fanis grows up to become an excellent cook and uses his cooking skills to spice up the lives of those around him. Thirty-five years later he leaves Athens and travels back to his birthplace of Istanbul to reunite with his grandfather and his first love. He travels back only to realize that he forgot to put a little bit of spice in his own life.
The Director
Tassos Boulmetis
He was born in Istanbul in 1957. He studied physics at the University of Athens, and filmmaking and film and TV production in UCLA. He has been working as an independent producer in Greek cinema and television. He co-produced, wrote and directed the feature film Dream Factory (1990), which won the Golden Award at the Houston Fantastic Film Festival. Since 1988 he has been directing TV spots, for local and international audiences, and has specialized in visual effects and the composition and processing of the digital image.
Filmography
1977 Neilo (documentary)
1981 Travelogue in the Environs (documentary)
1983 Rubalyat (short)
1986 Landscapes (video art)
1990 Dream Factory
2003 A Touch of Spice
2016 Mythopathy
DETAILS
Director: Tassos Boulmetis
Writing Credits: Tassos Boulmetis
Sound: Dimitris Athanassopoulos
Music: Evanthia Reboutsika
Sets: Olga Leontiadou
Make up: Evi Zafiropoulou
Costumes: Bianca Nikolareizi
Special Effects: Yannis Georgariou – Philippos Marmoutas
Executive producer: Kostas Lambropoulos
Production: Village Roadshow Productions, EKK, Greek Film Center, Smallridge, Ivestments, Filmnet, Cinegram, P. Papazoglou, Tassos Boulmetis, ANS International (Turkey), MC2 (France)
Duration: 108′
Color: Color
Cast:
George Corraface
Ieroklis Michailides
Renia Louizidou
Stellios Mainas
Tamer Karadagli
Basak Koklykaya
Tasos Bantis
Odisseas Papaspiliopoulos
Markos Osse
Theodoros Eksarhos
Kakia Panagiotou
Konstantina Michailidou
Themis Panou
Ersi Malikenzou
Marina Kalogirou
Michalis Giannatos
Ilias Zervos
Athinodoros Prousalis
AWARDS|FESTIVAL:
2003 Thessaloniki Film Festival
– Winner Audience Award, Greek Festival Tassos Boulmetis
– Winner Greek Competition Award, Best Fiction Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay Tassos Boulmetis, Best Cinematography Takis Zervoulakos, Best Editing Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Best Set Design Olga Leontiadou, Best Music Evanthia Reboutsika, Best Dimitris Athanasopoulou
– Winner Greek Union of Film and Television Technicians Award
REFERENCES
- Dermetzopoulos, Christos, “Regaining Memory: The Case of the Greek Film A Touch of Spice.” In Bilderwelten – Weltbilder. Die Gegenwart der Vergangenheit in postosmanischen Metropolen Sudosteuropas: Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Izmir, edited by Ulrike Tischler and Ioannis Zelepos, 161-191. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bem, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2010, http://www.academia.edu/368964/
- Dermentzopoulos, Christos, Η επινόηση του τόπου, Νοσταλγία και μνήμη στην πολίτικη κουζίνα (The Invention of Place: Nostalgia and Memory in the Film A Touch of Spice), Patra: Opportuna, 2015.
- Gulbun Onur, Sense of Place and Taste in a Touch of Spice, Wei International Academic Conference Proceedings, Vienna – Austria, 2015, www.westeastinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Gulbun-ONUR.pdf
- Koksal Ozlem, Aesthetics of Displacement Turkey and its Minorities on Screen, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016
- Papadimitriou, Lydia and Yannis Tzioumakis, eds., Greek cinema: Texts, Histories, Identities, Bristol: Intellect, 2011
- Papadimitriou, Lydia, The National and the Transnational in Contemporary Greek Cinema, New Review of Film and Television Studies, 9:4, pp. 493-512, 2011
- 55th Thessaloniki International Film Festival Catalogue
