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
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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
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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