Sushi in Suhl (2012)

Rolf Anschütz, the chef, runs the HO restaurant Waffenschmied in Suhl together with his wife Ingrid. The restaurant once belonged to his parents but was later nationalized. He also sees cooking as an art, so he likes trying new things instead of serving the usual dishes, which he considers boring in the long run. When the HO celebrates its 23rd anniversary at the restaurant, he has cockchafer soup served as a starter, having gone to considerable trouble to obtain the hard-to-find cockchafers. But after the HO manager learns, after a few spoonfuls, what the soup is made of, she feels sick. Anschütz is then subjected to severe criticism for his taste for experimentation, since people had expected more traditional food. Despite the negative reaction, he plans to put his next idea into practice: cooking Japanese food and serving it to his friends in an appropriate setting. Although organizing this proves difficult, he succeeds, and a journalist writes about it in the newspaper. As a result, the restaurant receives numerous inquiries about the possibility of eating Japanese food there. A Japanese man who teaches at the University of Jena even visits the restaurant. He likes the opportunity to eat Japanese food so much that he returns to Anschütz’s restaurant to prepare dishes together with him. He also persuades the chef to cook for him and his Japanese friends. The Japanese guests are very pleased with the result. Anschütz subsequently begins offering Japanese dishes, including sushi, to regular customers as well. Meanwhile, his superiors at the HO keep wavering between closing the restaurant because the chef’s initiative strays too far from the socialist framework, and using his skills to improve relations with Japanese business representatives. However, the growing influx of guests, drawn by food that is exotic by GDR standards, puts increasing strain on Anschütz’s marriage, which falls into a serious crisis. He refuses to be deterred from his path. News also arrives from Japan that he is to receive an order. He travels to Japan to accept it—a world completely foreign to him. Amid all the excitement in Japan, he suffers a spell of weakness and has to spend some time in hospital. There are also problems with his visa for the return journey, further delaying his trip home. Although he likes what he sees in Japan, he longs to return to the familiar “cage” of his home in Suhl. Once the visa problems have been resolved and he returns to Suhl, he continues to serve Japanese dishes successfully at the restaurant. His marriage, however, finally falls apart. At the end of the film, viewers learn that 1,974,000 guests visited the GDR’s first Japanese restaurant by the fall of the Berlin Wall. In memory of the real Rolf Anschütz, whose life story the film is based on, his photograph appears on screen.