‘Black Tea’ Trailer: First Look at Abderrahmane Sissako’s Berlinale Competition Film Unveiled by Gaumont (EXCLUSIVE)

Gaumont has unveiled a first still and trailer for “Black Tea,” Abderrahmane Sissako’s highly anticipated follow-up to his 2015 Oscar-nominated film “Timbuktu.” The movie will world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

A lushly-lensed romance drama, “Black Tea” (previously titled “The Perfumed Hill“) tells the story of Aya, who leaves the Ivory Coast after walking out on her wedding day and sets off to start a new life in Guangzhou, China. In this district where the African diaspora meets the Chinese culture, she gets hired in a tea boutique owned by Cai, a Chinese man. In the secrecy of the back shop, Cai decides to initiate Aya to the tea ceremony and their relationship slowly turns into tender love.

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Gaumont, which is handling international sales and French distribution rights on the film, has described it as “a timeless, universal love story between two opposite characters” and a “sensory journey” set across China, the Ivory Coast and Cape Verde. The film also delivers some insight on the complex Chinese-African relationship through the blossoming romance between the two protagonists.

The movie stars Nina Mélo, Chang Han and Wu Ke-Xi. Producers are Cinefrance Studios, Archipel 35 and Dune Vision.

Sissako, who penned the screenplay, previous said he was inspired to tell this story after discovering a restaurant called La Colline Parfumée” (“The Perfumed Hill”) that was run by an Afro-Chinese couple. He said that the city of Guangzhou, which is known as “Chocolate City,” “encourages human encounters through its countless stores of every kind.”

Watch the trailer for “Black Tea” below.

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