Kebab mit Alles (TV Film)

When you say „TV film“, that is film made directly for screening on TV without showing it in cinema or releasing it on DVD first, it often means a product of a low(er) quality. It may often be so, but sometimes the viewer can find a true jewel. Kebab mit alles is, at least in my eyes, such jewel. The premise is simple – One Turkish family (father played by Tim Seyfi, mother, teenage daughter and small son) moves to Vienna to start a restaurant business there. They buy a house from certain count (Michael Schönborn) and everything seems fine, until they find out the house… houses also true Austrian Coffee shop run by grumpy man (Andreas Vitásek) who despises all foreigners, and his wife (Franziska Sztavjanik). What follows is an amusing clash of wills and different views on life and cultural backgrounds, where no one really wants to see that both sides are basically the same. The story is also sparkled with a bit of magic realism through the character of Prince Eugene of Savoy (Michael Ostrowski), that is hero of the siege of Vienna in 1683 and whose life-sized picture hangs in the Coffee house that bears his name. Prince Eugene occasionally steps out of the painting and talks to the grumpy Johann Stanzerl and tries to teach him some military tactics. Both sides get help from their friends, but these are often unpleasant (Turkish “godfather”), incompetent but well-meaning or even backstabbing and usually make more mess than actual help. While the two husbands can’t come to terms, their wives on the other hand see no reason to mutual enmity and often help to each other. I don’t want to spoil the ending, so here I stop with describing of the story itself. While the film itself takes place mostly in the single house, it doesn’t mind in slightest. To me, it’s film about co-existence of two different nationalities, but also says, that one doesn’t have to be a slave of traditions. And interestingly, while it’s Austrian production (ORF + Arte) and the tagline rephrasing Astérix and Obelix seems to side with the Austrian citizen (“Die ganze Brunnengasse ist in türkischer Hand. Die Ganze? Nein, nicht die Ganze. Eine letzte österreichische Bastion gibt es noch…“), actually shows the opponent (who is Turkish and Piefke) in slightly more positive light. I would also mention shortly the soundtrack, which often plays with different genres and national tunes for comedic effect. If you like witty comedies, give this a try. http://www.allegrofilm.at/filme/kebab-mit-alles http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1929284/combined http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/5621943-Kebab-mit-Alles - full film (unfortunately, the link isn’t valid any longer - this article was written in March 2013).