
North American Premiere
After turning down her unfaithful fiancé at the altar, Aya (Nina Mélo) leaves the Ivory Coast and starts a dreamy new life at a gourmet tea shop in Guangzhou, China. As her employer Cai (Chang Han) teaches her the ancient art of the tea ceremony, a sensual romance brews between them. But Cai is haunted by an unrealized dream: to be reunited with his estranged daughter Eva in Cape Verde, the child of an affair he kept hidden from his ex-wife Ying (Wu Ke-Shi). Must he keep a lid on his relationship with Aya too?
This long-awaited new feature from Oscar-nominated auteur Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu) sweeps us off our feet with sleekly edited montages and sublime visual compositions. With the aesthetic flavour of Wong Kar-wai, steeped in a vibrant city nightscape of food stalls and beauty salons, the film explores the African diaspora’s search for cross-cultural harmony in China through its intriguing ensemble cast of characters. Black Tea serves up a bittersweet, metaphysical blend of unresolved dreams and desires.
Media Partner
Nina Mélo, Chang Han, Wu Ke-Xi
France/Mauritania/
Luxembourg/Taiwan/
Côte d’Ivoire
2024
In Mandarin, French, English and Portuguese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
David Gauquié, Julien Deris, Denis Freyd, Charles S. Cohen, Jean-Luc Ormières
Screenwriter
Kessen Fatoumata Tall, Abderrahmane Sissako
Cinematography
Aymerick Pilarski
Editor
Nadia Ben Rachid
Production Design
Véronique Sacrez
Original Music
Armand Amar

Abderrahmane Sissako
Abderrahmane Sissako was born in Mauritania in 1961 and brought up in Mali. He went to the Soviet Union to attend the VGIK film school in Moscow where he made his first short films.
Filmography: Rostov-Luanda (1997); Life on Earth (1998); Waiting for Happiness (2002); Bamako (2006); Timbuktu (2014)
Photo by Chevié Link
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Giant
This was the Yellowstone of its time: a big, sweeping modern Western built around an imposing ranch and family dynamics -- except Giant is much more subversive. James Dean strikes it rich as Jett Rink, much to the disgust of his former boss, Rock Hudson.
Familiar Touch
A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
A Streetcar Named Desire
"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."