Snack bar (2012)

Directed by: Meral Uslu | 86 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Ali Çifteci, Iliass Addab, Ilias Ojja, Ismael Tarhabi, Aziz Akazim, Mamoun Elyounoussi

The multicultural positivism of (ex) Volkskrant columnists such as Nazmiye Oral and Pieter Hilhorst is the basis of this documentary-style film by Meral Uslu, who made his name with documentaries such as ‘My father’s children’. The street scenes in front of ‘surrogate father’ Ali’s snack bar are immediately recognizable: the emotional group atmosphere among the (Moroccan) young people, the poignant difference in attitude to life between them and other ethnic groups. Observation and visual realism is the strength of Uslu, be it a stabbing or a traditional instrument playing snack bar owner, who just wants to earn his money and therefore sends loiterers away.

‘Snackbar’ would have been a must if it was a movie to watch alone. Not only because of the qualities of Uslu, also because most of the audience of this movie in real life is also just observant of the world shown. However, Uslu makes the viewer explicitly aware of the habitat of Dutch street youth today, who choose a snack bar – filmed in Rotterdam’s Oude Noorden, but it could just as well have been Amsterdam – as the place of action for their worries. This can work very well if a personal layer is tapped to which the viewer can attach, as in Michael Haneke’s ‘Caché’, a film that broadly uses the same ethics as ‘Snackbar’.

Uslu brings Ali’s estrangement and his gambling addiction as a dramatic element, alongside a stabbing and a collision. However, no priority is given to interesting events and characters, while the discussions between Ali and his wife Pinar with Çifteci and especially Oral are still in good hands. Among the young people, Illias Ojja (Nouredine), Aziz Akazim (Chiwawa) and Lárbi Ahmed Salah (Mounir) qualify in this regard, but not all actors are able to give substance to the clichés about immigrant youth with which the Dutch media has been so involved in recent years. is satisfied, and which are here again put into their mouths. This film was made respectfully enough to raise awareness for this group, but there is clearly a need for a multicultural story with enough dramatic power to touch anyone who opens up to it. Preferably with the powerful images from the credits of ‘Snackbar’.