A touch of spice

(Herald rating: * * *)


Like most family occasions, this is by turns joyful, nostalgic, bitter-sweet, subtle and full-on, told to the pace and flavour of a Mediterranean menu: the story of Fanis Iakovidis (George Corraface), a 40-year-old astrophysics professor. He was born and brought up as a Greek boy in Istanbul in the shadow of his beloved grandfather.

Greece and Turkey fell out, Fanis fled to Athens and has not seen his grandfather for 35 years but the old man is coming to visit at last. When Grandad falls ill, Fanis takes an emotional journey back to his childhood in Istanbul and Saime (Basak Koklukaya), the girl he left behind. Note: Greece's most popular movie and its 2005 Oscar foreign film entry, this is subtitled.