Once Upon a Time in the Middle East: A new frame on anti-war films

From Schindler's List to All Quiet on the Western Front, anti-war films have always found an audience. This summer, a Chinese film is offering a fresh take, not from the battlefield but from the kitchen.

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East follows Xu Fu, a Chinese chef who finds himself caught up in a desperate struggle to save lives amid the flames of war in the Middle East.

His survival instinct isn't about fighting, it's about feeding people and holding onto normal life when everything around him is falling apart.

Moviegoers have called it one of the most emotionally powerful Chinese films in years. Some scholars have described it as China's first realist anti-war film.

There is already a buzz building overseas even before its international release. Viewers say it is challenging trite storytelling, bringing a perspective rarely seen in the genre.  

One scene sums it up: a line about "peace and good food." 

"Have a good meal" is a Chinese expression carrying an everyday wish. In the film it becomes a quiet act of defiance. 

Traditional Chinese chopsticks, square at one end and rounded at the other, are sometimes said to embody the ancient Chinese idea of a square earth beneath a round heaven. Sharing food is more than a habit for Chinese people; it's an act of care and bonding. In the middle of war, this simple act takes on a new meaning. 

"This film absolutely deserves the Oscar for Best Picture," one viewer wrote. Others said the film doesn't need to compete with anything else, it just tells its story. 

In Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, the heroes aren't soldiers. They're ordinary people trying to hold onto their humanity. American soldiers appear too, not as saviours but as people caught up in the same mire. 

As some overseas viewers have put it, the film is "undoubtedly one of the most direct and unvarnished critiques of Hollywood."

The film doesn't preach or tell you what to think. It just shows you a chef, a restaurant, a war and the small acts of kindness that survive.  

The taste it leaves the viewer with is that "having a good meal" should be the norm for people everywhere.