30/06/2005

Committed to show how European cinema can help eliminate physical and cultural borders, the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament organised last Tuesday an event which included presentations on European film, and it screened the Greek box office hit A Touch of Spice, by Turkey-born filmmaker Tassos Boulmetis. A "Turkish-Greek approach to European film" – according to the programme - which seemed both a discreet support for Turkey's entry to the E.U. and an opportunity to promote Boulmetis' latest film in Belgium, where the film will be distributed on July 27th.
Underlining the fact that cultural diversity is the basis of European Culture, socialist MP Nikos Sifounakis, who leads the committee, described Boulmetis' film as "poem, a piece of extraordinary realism" and reiterated the need to create a film industry in Europe capable of competing with the American film business.

Set in today's Athens, the film returns to Fanis' childhood, when he and his family were deported from Istanbul to Greece. Treated as a Greek in Turkey and as Turkish in Greece, little boy Fanis grows up between two cultures, always nostalgic about the absence of his grandfather who had remained in Turkey. When he is about to meet him, after more than 40 years, Fanis – now a well-known known professor of astrophysics – learns that his grandfather died. He begins a journey which takes him back to Turkey and to his memories. Present at the event, Boulmetis confessed A Touch of Spice is an autobiographical film. The director left Turkey in the early 60's and did not return till nine years ago. The two day trip inspired him to write the film. After spending 7 years redrafting the script, Boulmetis finally presented it to the Greek Film Centre. Produced by the Australian producers of Village Roadshow, ANS International and MC2, A Touch of Spice became one of the highest grossing films last year in Greece. Buoyed by the support from the European Parliament A Touch of Spice prepares to conquer the European screens.