What kind of culture is the global culture that’s emerging all around us at this moment? The cinema of our age is greatly concerned with finding the answer to this pressing question. The story of Soul Kitchen—which is directed by a German Turk, Fatih Akin, is set in Hamburg, and concerns a thirtysomething Greek German (Adam Bousdoukos) who owns a restaurant that serves American soul food (the establishment’s kitchen is run by a Turk, Birol Ünel)—offers this answer to the question: Global culture is one that is always on the verge of collapse, of falling apart and becoming a meaningless jumble of sounds, feelings, and faces. Somehow, through processes that are almost mysterious, it all holds together, and what we see is not a total social nightmare but an elegant order of speeding trains, large lofts, bars, clubs, packed restaurants, and people—beautiful people from all of the races of the world—enjoying black American food and music. The tune at the end of Soul Kitchen is Louis Armstong’s majestic version of “The Creator Has a Master Plan” (it was recorded in 1970, arranged by Oliver Nelson, and also featured weird soul yodeling by the song’s composer, Leon Thomas). The movie concludes with a song about precisely what is lacking in a world composed of the confusing forces of global culture and consumption: a plan. 
Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory... More by Charles Mudede