Turkish-German director Fatih Akin (Head-On [trailer], Cannes award-winner The Edge of Heaven [trailer, film focus]) is making his first foray into comedy. His new feature project, entitled Soul Kitchen, has existed since 2004 but the director set it aside to shoot The Edge of Heaven first.

The film has received funding from the FFA (€3.2m) and the Filmforderung Hambourg Schleswig-Holstein regional fund (€800,000), which covers the €4m budget previously announced by producer Klaus Maeck (partner of the director and of Andreas Thiel at the production company Corazón International).
Akin, who recently directed a segment of New York, je t'aime, has just finished acting in Costa-Gavras' Eden à l'Ouest – along with Riccardo Scamarcio, Ulrich Tukur and Michel Bouquet and – and is currently working on the documentary Garbage in the Garden of Eden.

The cast of Soul Kitchen is already confirmed. Adam Bousdoukos (Kebab Connection, co-written by Akin and directed by Anno Saul) plays the owner of a Greek restaurant going through some hard times. Birol Ünel, the star of Head-On, and Moritz Bleibtreu (The Elementary Particles [trailer, film focus]) also head the bill.

Principal photography is set to start in Hamburg in October. According to the director, the film is an unpretentious love story that will mark his debut in the comedy genre. Akin, a self-declared admirer of Billy Wilder, says comedy is harder than drama but he cannot wait to give it a try.