BLACK TEA
France, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, 2024, 110 min, Mandarin
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Screenwriter: Abderrahmane Sissako
DOP: Aymerick Pilarski
Editor: Nadia Ben Rachid
hProducers: Denis Freyd, David Gauquié, Jean-Luc Ormières
Cast: Nina Mélo, Chang Han, Wu Ke-Xi, Michael Chang
Oscar-nominated director Abderrahmane Sissako's film Black Tea is a love story about new beginnings and the wider world that opens up with them.
On her wedding day, Aja shocks everyone by saying “no”. Determined to take her life in a completely new direction, she leaves her native Ivory Coast and sets off for a distant land promising new opportunities – the city of Guangzhou in China. Aja settles in “Chocolate Town”, a neighbourhood where the cultures of various African diasporas intertwine with Chinese culture, and finds employment in a traditional teahouse. When the owner, Tsai, begins to teach Aja the secrets of the traditional Chinese tea ceremony, a world of stunningly beautiful tea plantations and subtle aromas opens up to her. As their bond gradually strengthens, warm feelings begin to blossom. Aja and Tsai fall in love, but will their budding relationship withstand the trials of the past and the superstitions of those around them?
Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2015 Oscars for his film Timbuktu. His new feature BLACK TEA will premiere in the Competition section of Berlin Film Festival.
