The joys of cooking and having to deal with a mixed culture Middle-Eastern upbringing are a recipe for a bittersweet conflict in the new drama ABE.
Fans of the hit Netflix series STRANGER THINGS will certainly want to check out one of its’ young stars, Noah Schnapp, who stars as Abe, the product of an Israeli-Palestinian immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York who struggles to come to terms with his background, particularly as a twelve-year old boy who is about to undertake his Bar Mitzvah and also has to deal with his Jewish-Muslim fusion of cultures. Should he fast? Should he eat pork?
His main source of pleasure is in the kitchen and when he visits a street kitchen of Brazilian dishes, run by Chico (Seu Jorge) who prides himself on the fusion of his culture with the origins of his culinary delights.
His Muslim father Amir (Arian Moayed) and Jewish mother Rebecca (Dagmara Dominczyk) decide to enrol Abe in a Summer Cooking Camp at a local school, but after he gatecrashes Chico’s kitchen, Abe is taken on as a dishwasher first and then gradually works his way up to start working on some of the special mixes and food offerings that Chico serves up.
Inevitably, the families on both sides get involved and their determination to impose the importance of both cultures and their respective values on Abe’s own development as a teenager and as a human being begin to affect his own emotional and psychological state….
ABE captures perfectly the values of background and upbringing and combines it with an heart-warming – and on occasion heart-breaking – coming of age tale, directed with balance by Fernando Grostein Andrade, from a screenplay by Lameece Issaq and Jacob Kader. The Brooklyn setting does evoke memories of Neil Simon and Woody Allen movies, but there is enlightenment for all listening to the context of certain phrases and ideals which are often misinterpreted.
Another strength of the film is that it heightens cultural and family tensions and conflicts without using it in a political arena in a way that a film like ZERO DARK THIRTY or UNITED 93 might, given the global elements of change that have been in our psyche since 9/11 and other moments of concern. The message does carry well, but the importance of the family unit and the effect adults and parenthood have on the evolution of offspring and new generations is well orchestrated and revealed in the film.
Schnapp certainly will give the film some push given the Netflix fan-base and popularity of the multi-series success of STRANGER THINGS, but he acquits himself very well in the role and leads the line in a very enjoyable film.
Oh – one last thing – you might be stimulated into eating a whole lot more after seeing ABE, as like all the best food-themed films, you aren’t found wanting for delicious options and this is a very tasty cinematic main course.
