A complex love story set in an African neighborhood in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Abderrahmane Sissako’s film was selected for the competition at Berlinale 2024.
Aya (Nina Mélo) is just over thirty and was born in Côte d’Ivoire. After rejecting her fiancé just before the wedding because of his infidelity, she now lives in an African neighborhood in Guangzhou, a place where African diasporas meet Chinese culture. Aya speaks fluent Chinese and is learning how to host a tea ceremony. She frequents a beauty salon to chat with her compatriots and leave with gorgeous hair. While Aya is learning to properly brew tea in order to bring out its flavors and aroma, a spark of love emerges between her and the tea shop owner, divorced Chinese man Wong Cai (Chang Han).
With this story of a woman in search of a new identity in a foreign culture, the Mauritanian-born and Malian-raised director Abderrahmane Sissako returns to the subjects of migration and globalization recurrent in his work. The main character’s attempt to integrate into Chinese culture can be interpreted not as a real experience but as a dream, a reverie before the fateful decision to get married. Many events in the film follow the logic of a dream, and the Wong-Kar-wai-inspired imagery adds to the ambiguity. Aya’s romantic dream of love and a new life is abruptly interrupted. The xenophobia often faced by African migrants in China dispels her dreams, forcing Aya to return to reality.
The film will be screened in Chinese, French, English, and Portuguese with Russian subtitles.
Black Tea
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
France, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Mauritania, 2024. 110 min. 16+