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Black Tea film image; man stands behind woman with arms around her preparing tea

Black Tea

Panorama

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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

Director
Cast

Nina Mélo, Chang Han, Wu Ke-Xi

Credits
Country of Origin

France/Mauritania/
Luxembourg/Taiwan/
Côte d’Ivoire

Year

2024

Language

In Mandarin, French, English and Portuguese with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
109 min
Black Cinema Drama Legendary Filmmakers Romance
Cinéfrance Studios, Archipel 35, Dune Vision

Book Tickets

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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 headshot; Black Tea director

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

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