There are more than a few similarities between Salam Kahil, the Lebanese-born Vancouverite who owns Surrey sandwich shop The Charcuterie, and The Soup Nazi of Seinfeld fame.
Both have ardent fans who’ll endure epically long lines to get a taste of the food wares.
Both have idiosyncrasies that are downright off-putting to the uninitiated.
Both have strict policies about behaviour and manners, and both will ban you forever (“No soup for you!”) if you dare to break even one of the rules.
But that’s pretty much where the similarities end – and despite The Soup Nazi’s global fame, our local deli owner is far more interesting.
You can learn all about Kahil in The Sandwich Nazi, which screens this week as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Helmed by Vancouver director Lewis Bennett, The Sandwich Nazi follows Kahil over a couple of years, and reveals a man who is far more complex than his sexually explicit stories, frequent full-frontal nudity, giant sandwiches, and shop rules might lead you to believe.
He’s a former escort. He donates massive quantities of sandwiches to the homeless on the DTES. He lived through a horrific car accident.
He’s working through the childhood sexual abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his brother (and we see him interacting with his brother during his first trip back to Lebanon since 1990).
“I first learned about Salam from Reddit, where people were posting stories about being in the deli, and I couldn’t believe some of the stories, because they were so out there,” says Bennett. “I went in as a customer to see what the experience was like, and was blown away from the get-go.”
Kahil has posted on his Facebook page that he doesn’t like the documentary (“We’ve been trying to meet with him to find out what his concerns are, because we didn’t make a documentary to make him mad at us, but he won’t return my calls,” says Bennett) – but even without Kahil’s stamp of approval, the film is a compelling and entertaining character study of a 604 icon.
The Sandwich Nazi screens at The Rio on Oct. 3. Tickets and info at http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f15546-the-sandwich-nazi.
UPDATE: Salam Kahil has addressed his concerns with the film in a posting to his deli's Facebook page; you can read it here. Warning: post contains explicit language
UPDATE, Nov. 24, 2017: The Sandwich Nazi will be available on services such as iTunes, Vimeo on Demand, Google Play, Amazon Instant, and Microsoft Video on Nov. 28. The filmmakers say that Kahil's feelings toward the film have not changed.
