Short Films

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Best of The Fests

BLACK TEA
BLACK TEA

• Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
• FRANCE, MAURITANIA, LUXEMBOURG, TAIWAN, COTE D’IVOIRE / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 111’ / Mandarin, French, English, Portuguese; Turkish, English s.t.

• Screenplay: Kessen Fatoumata Tall, Abderrahmane Sissako
• Director of Photography: Aymerick Pilarski
• Editing: Nadia Ben Rachid
• Music: Armand Amar
• Cast: Nina Mélo, Chang Han, Wu Ke-Xi, Michael Chang
• Producer: David Gauquié, Julien Derys, Denis Freyd, Kessen Fatoumata Tall, Jean-Luc Ormières, Charles S. Cohen
• Production Co.: Cinéfrance Studios, Archipel 35, Dune Vision
• World Sales: Gaumont
• Turkish Rights: Mars Film

Remarkable, observational, sensual new work by master filmmaker Sissako follows a woman who is bold enough to say ‘no!’ on her wedding day. Aya is a woman in her early thirties. After astonishing everyone by turning down her fiancé, she leaves the Ivory Coast for a new life in China. In Guangzhou, she finds a job in a tea boutique owned by Cai, a Chinese man. In the privacy of the shop’s backroom, Cai initiates Aya into the Chinese tea ceremony. As he teaches her this ancient art, their relationship slowly grows into one of tender love. But, will their burgeoning passion face up to their pasts and overcome prejudices? Black Tea, the first film in a decade from veteran Mauritanian auteur, who excels in mingling the sorrowful with the joyous, competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in February.

This film is screened with the kind contribution of Institut Français.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.