Black Tea

In the Ivory Coast, Aya runs away from her wedding. She starts a new life in China, in a neighborhood of African immigrants, and finds work at a tea boutique owned by a local man. Cal teaches Aya the secrets of the tea ceremony, and gradually a tentative romance blossoms. Abderrahmane Sissako is one of Africa's greatest directors. His previous film, Timbuktu, from about a decade ago, was nominated for an Oscar. If his previous films dealt with his homeland of Mali, and an observation of its physical and human portrait, Black Tea is a journey between cultures in an era of accelerated globalization. Sissako follows his characters and their journeys across the globe with a degree of empathy and sympathy, and through them, he examines current questions of belonging and love.