With an arranged marriage looming, Turkish bachelor Bram falls in love with handsome blond Kevin. This imported film involves clashing cultures and changing lives.
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Now available in the United States from TLA Releasing, this imported film takes place in Antwerp and Turkey. Bram (Cem Akkanat) faces pressure from his Turkish parents to marry his 18-year-old cousin Elif (Gamze Tazim). His parents pretend not to know about his homosexuality, while Elif just wants a more glamorous life.
Bram’s brother Furkan (Lukas De Wolf) skips school with his friends and gets into trouble. He also complicates Bram’s life, threatening to out him to their parents.
The family lives in a community that not only requires knowing multiple languages but also requires them to walk between differing, conflicting cultures. Modern and traditional coexist, but not always in harmony.
Bram becomes enamored with Kevin (Simon Van Buyten), a handsome blond who runs a chip shop with his mother. As the marriage draws closer, so does their relationship. Bram and Kevin share a hotel room in Turkey, with Bram splitting his time between two people who might change his life.
While those complications grow, a radical Islamic group pulls Furkan into their influence and uses him to help pressure their neighborhood into following Sharia law. The diverse worlds in this engaging film soon collide.
Despite how the plot sounds, Mixed Kebab usually leans more toward comedy and romance than tragedy. That adorable picture on TLA’s movie poster comes from one of the light, romantic moments. Writer/director Guy Lee Thys gives dimensional portraits of human beings trying to live their lives and their convictions honestly, even when those lives and convictions seem to threaten each other.
Mixed Kebab is in English, Flemish, Turkish, Dutch, French, and Arabic, with English subtitles.
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