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Aya is a woman in her early thirties. After astonishing everyone by saying “No” on her wedding day, she leaves the Ivory Coast for a new life in China. Living in an area where the African diaspora meets the Chinese culture, she finds a job in a tea boutique owned by Cai, a 45-year-old 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 for their burgeoning passion to be supported by trust, both of them must let go of their burdens and face up to their pasts. -berlinale.deRead More »
Abderrahmane Sissako
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Abderrahmane Sissako – Black Tea (2024)
2021-2030Abderrahmane SissakoDramaFranceRomance -
Abderrahmane Sissako – Oktyabr AKA October (1993)
1991-2000Abderrahmane SissakoAfrican CinemaDramaFranceShort FilmQuote:
Idrissa left Moscow and Ira, who came to this last appointment of lovers to say goodbye. Again, lovers unloved are endless farewell to this house lost in the depths of Moscow. Neighbors who rejected them are also waiting for you outside their door on the night of October.Ira pregnant. She is worried, doubt and wanders the streets of Moscow. Her lover, Idrissa, an African student, will leave Russia. He finds Ira in his apartment for their last appointment. One last October night that never stops being that of impossible love …Read More »
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Abderrahmane Sissako – Rostov-Luanda (1998)
1991-2000Abderrahmane SissakoAfrican CinemaArthouseDocumentaryMauritaniaBorn in Mauritania and raised in Mali, Abderrahmane Sissako received a scholarship to study film in Moscow, after graduating from school. To learn Russian, he was sent to Rostov on the Don river for an entire year. On the endless train ride from Moscow to Rostov, he met Baribanga, an Angolan student who was going to the same language school. That year, far from home, the two Africans became friends. Almost two decades later, Sissako decides to search for Baribanga. Rostov-Luanda tells two stories, the search for the long-lost friend, that leads to an encounter with present-day Angola.Read More »
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Abderrahmane Sissako – La vie sur terre AKA Life on Earth (1998)
1991-2000Abderrahmane SissakoAfrican CinemaComedyDocumentaryMaliIn the last days of 1999, after a few shots of a French supermarket, abundant in food and color, we hear Dramane compose a letter home to his father in Mali whom he then visits in the village of Sokolo. He meets the lovely Nana, and there are possibilities. People place long-distance calls from the post office. “Reaching people,” says the postmaster, “is a matter of luck.” Contrasts between Paris and Sokolo – between Mali and France and between Africa and Europe – are underscored by voice-over poems and comments by Aimé Césaire. A man dictates a letter to a brother in France: what is the nature of their hardships? People look for their place on this earth.Read More »
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Abderrahmane Sissako – Heremakono aka Waiting for Happiness [+Extras] (2002)
2001-2010Abderrahmane SissakoAfrican CinemaArthouseDramaFranceDescription: Synopsis
Waiting for Happiness depicts life in the seaside town of Nouadhibou in Mauritania. A young man, Abdallah (Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed), visits the town, where his mother lives, before emigrating. He feels disconnected from his people because he dresses in Western clothes, and he does not speak the language, but he connects in small ways during his stay. A taciturn elderly electrician, Maata (Maata Ould Mohamed Abeid), teaches an energetic boy, Khatra (Khatra Ould Abdel Kader), his trade, while a traditional singer (Nema Mint Choueikh) teaches a talented young girl hers. One would-be émigré washes up on the beach amid massive ships long ago run aground. Abdallah’s mother vainly urges him to follow traditional customs while he’s in town. Nana (Nana Diakite) tells Abdallah a sad tale about tracking down the father of her lost child in Europe. The film jumps forward in time at several points, and eventually both Khatra and Abdallah try to leave the village.Read More » -
Abderrahmane Sissako – Timbuktu (2014)
2011-2020Abderrahmane SissakoAfrican CinemaDramaFranceCannes 2014: Timbuktu review – searing fundamentalist drama
By Peter BradshawAbderrahmane Sissako’s passionate and visually beautiful film Timbuktu is a cry from the heart – with all the more moral authority for being expressed with such grace and such care. It is a portrait of the country of his childhood, the west African state of Mali, and in particular the city of Timbuktu, whose rich and humane traditions are being trampled, as Sissako sees it, by fanatical jihadis, often from outside the country. The story revolves around the death of a cow, affectionately named “GPS” – an appropriate symbol for a country that has lost its way.Read More »