A Touch of Spice

Fanis Iakovides is a successful astrophysics professor living in Athens, but his memories continually return him to his childhood in Constantinople. There, he grew up close to his beloved grandfather Vassilis, the owner of a spice shop who taught him that cooking and life both depend on finding the right balance between their ingredients.

Surrounded by the aromas of cinnamon, pepper and cumin, young Fanis also meets Saime, the girl who becomes his first love. Political tensions between Greece and Turkey, however, transform his family's life and force them to leave Constantinople behind, separating Fanis from the people, places and memories that shaped him.

Years later, Fanis is forced to confront what he left behind. Tassos Boulmetis uses food and spices as a language of memory in this bittersweet story about homeland, displacement, family, first love and the flavors that can keep a vanished world alive long after we have left it.