re:mote voices

Title:Kebab Connection
Cast: Denis Moschitto, Nora Tschirner
Director: Anno Saul

King of Kebabs - for two fisted kebab action! That’s the punch line to the advert Ibo has made for his uncle's Kebab shop. An action packed trailer where two men are kung fu fighting over the last kebab, because they didn't go to King of Kebab's. His uncle hates it, at least until it’s shown in the cinema and the people are lining up outside for kebab. Ibo is convinced that this is his big break, and with his girlfriend preparing for her audition for drama school, things couldn't be better.

Titzi has been practicing the audition piece for Romeo & Juliet until she is word perfect. But she knows that things aren't great, and when she tells Ibo that she is pregnant it changes everything. So the question becomes whether their relationship will mirror that of Romeo & Juliet? Living in Hamburg Ibo is from a Turkish family, one who would prefer that he didn't get that involved with a German girl. So in quick time Ibo has been disowned by his family, and Titzi had dumped him because she doesn't think he will be any use as a father. Will this mean the end of his film career? And what about Titzi's acting? Can Ibo prove his potential as a father? Or will it take the intervention of Bruce Lee to sort everything out?

One of the writer's of Kebab connection is Fatih Akin, the only person associated with this film that I was familiar with - Akin having written and directed the documentary Crossing The Bridge, following Alexander Hacke's exploration of Turkish music, that showed in Glasgow a couple of times over the last few months. Kebab Connection is considerably different from that though - a hilarious comedy, combining a mix of genres, making it a modern day romantic comedy interpretation of a kung fu Romeo & Juliet, with the community tensions being between Turks, Germans and Greeks, and kebabs. Very much worth seeing, I can only hope that Kebab Connection won't just disappear after this one off showing, presented in association with the Glasgow Film Theatre and the Glasgow branch of the Goethe Institute.