Noticias

Stars: Steve Barkett, Christopher Barkett, Tera Hendrickson, Richard Harrison, Dawn Wildsmith, John Henry Richardson, Patricia Schiotis, Joseph Pilato, Jan Bryant | Written and Directed by Steve Barkett

In the 80s and 90s there were so many post-apocalyptic films. Many of the most fun out-of-this-world ones were of the low-budget B movie variety, and we’ve probably all heard the term “so bad it’s good” when it comes to these films.

Steve Barkett is a name you may not know off the top of your head, but if you love those B-movies from that era, you’ll know his films. In 1982 he made The Aftermath, and in 1995 he made Attack of the 60 Foot Centrefold. But in between those two films, in 1991, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in Empire of the Dark. Vci Entertainment and Mvd Visual previously brought us The Aftermath on Blu-ray. Now, as we are coming upon the...

Black Tea Photo: Cinêfrance Studios Archipel 35 Dune Vision

Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako's Black Tea follows the story of Aya (Nina Melo), who leaves the Ivory Coast in search of a new beginning in Guangzhou, China. She is hired by Cai (Han Chang), who runs a tea boutique; he sets about teaching her all he knows, and over time they discover a tender love for one another.

Black Tea was nominated for the Golden Bear award at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival. Sissako previously directed the 2014 drama, Timbuktu, about a family living in the sand dunes on the fringes of the city of Timbuktu, who have evaded the attention of the Jihadists, until now. 2002's Waiting For Happiness (Heremakono) follows two characters meeting in the Mauritanian city of Nouhadhibou, while 2006's Bamako explored the tensions between a married couple against the backdrop of broader political and economic issues.

Speaking with Eye For Film,...

Do you want someone to whisper into your ear or yell? In most cases, you’ll answer the former, but if the decibel level is at the point where you can barely hear––and might even be losing interest in what’s being said––you’ll reconsider. This is a succinct way of describing Black Tea, which maintains so low a tempo while having such an inevitable conclusion that you wonder what the intention, exactly, might’ve been.

With Abderrahmane Sissako moving at what now seems like one film a decade, this return is even more of a disappointment. A director who has compellingly rendered the slow-moving tragedies of Mali and Mauritania in past films, he’s a vital voice in cinema. Black Tea finds him trying to render something that, from the outset, has the appearance of a classical romantic melodrama. A western viewer ascribing traditional demands to Sissako’s cinema is,...

Spill the Tea: Sissako Flounders with Tepid Brew

The level of ineptitude apparent in every regard of Black Tea, Abderrahmane Sissako’s first narrative feature in a decade, is downright delirious. During its development, the project was known as The Perfumed Hill, and was subject to additional drama regarding its Taiwanese funding despite ultimately taking place in Guangzhou. The end result demands to be seen to be believed, though it’s a laborious, emotional void of a film besotted by affected dialogue and shallow subtexts. Playing as if it was cobbled together haphazardly during the editing process, which is made all the more apparent by a fantastically stupid last minute reveal, Sissako has created a propaganda styled brochure for a travelogue.…...

If you’ve already scoured through our massive summer movie preview, then you’re already aware the season’s kick-off is one of the most eclectic months in some time, featuring high-wire blockbusters, the return of beloved auteurs, the year’s finest comedy, and more gems to discover.

16. The Surfer (Lorcan Finnegan; May 2)

After one of the most successful films of his career with last year’s Longlegs, Nicolas Cage returns this year with The Surfer, a beach-set psychological thriller directed by Lorcan Finnegan. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “In The Surfer, an exploitation film set to pressure-cook, a mild-mannered man is pitted against a group who even Andrew Tate might find a touch extreme. It’s set in South Australia on fictional Luna Bay, the kind of place where if the heat doesn’t get you, something else probably will. The water shines turquoise-blue but the beaches look like scorched earth.

European Film Promotion has selected 20 rising European producers for the 26th edition of its Producers on the Move networking program, which runs during the Cannes Film Festival. Variety is the program’s main media partner.

The following producers are taking part: Blerina Hankollari (Albania), Andi G. Hess (Austria), Géraldine Sprimont (Belgium), Magdelena Ilieva (Bulgaria), Tamara Babun Zovko (Croatia), Daniel Mühlendorph (Denmark), Lionel Massol (France), Fred Burle (Germany), Claudia Sümeghy (Hungary), Deirdre Levins (Ireland), Francesca Andreoli (Italy), Kristele Pudane (Latvia), Klementina Remeikaitė (Lithuania), Vincent Quénault (Luxembourg), Bojana Radulović (Montenegro), Janne Hjeltnes (Norway), Agnieszka Wasiak (Poland), Carla Fotea (Romania), Eliza Jones (Sweden) and Thomas Reichlin (Switzerland).

They will take part in sessions designed to foster international co-productions, boost the exchange of experiences and help create new professional networks. Pre-festival kick-off online gatherings, which already started yesterday and are going to run until April 30, offer one-to-one speed meetings, roundtables and pitching sessions. All...

The producers behind internationally acclaimed titlesThe Girl With The Needle andVermiglio are among those selected for European Film Promotion’s (Efp) Producers On The Move programme, which showcases rising talent and fosters international co-productions.

Agnieszka Wasiak was the Polish co-producer on Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle through Lava Films, while Italy’s Francesca Andreoli produced Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio via Cinedora.

The 20-strong group will take part in a programme that aims to foster international co-productions, share experiences and create professional networks. The Pre-Festival online programme starts today and runs until April 30, and includes speed meetings,...

At the Taiwan Creative Content Fest, leading Taiwanese actors Wu Ke-Xi, J.C. Lin, Kai Ko, and Esther Liu offered candid insights into their experiences working on international co-productions, discussing everything from language barriers to cultural differences in approaching intimate scenes.

Wu shared her experience working on Berlinale title “Black Tea” with director Abderrahmane Sissako, describing the unique challenges of a French-language production. “The director only had a rough script and wanted to incorporate the actors’ ideas,” Wu explained. The production, shot in Taiwan and Africa, required constant translation between French and Chinese, sometimes leading to cultural disconnects. Wu, who previously learned Burmese and Thai for Midi Z’s “Road to Mandalay,” also studied the local version of Portuguese for her role as a Chinese restaurant owner in Cape Verde, though those lines were ultimately cut.

Discussing contract negotiations, Wu revealed her proactive approach to dealings in the U.S. “The...

The feature “Tales of Taipei” is a tribute to the low-pressure, culturally rich city, which has been shaped by its regional neighbors, taken in diverse peoples and distilled the multiple competing influences into a messy, happy-go-lucky morass.

Produced by Bowie Tsang and Amy Ma, the film calls on 10 directors hailing from Malaysia, France, Bhutan and Hong Kong, and Taiwanese locals Yin Cheng-han and Remii Huang to contribute.

“Everything is possible in Taiwan, everything exits side by side,” says Tsang, who was born in Hong Kong. “We have old Chinese myths. We believe in the afterlife. Churches exist side by side with temples. We are still trying to figure out how to tell our stories.”

As in the film, juxtapositions exist throughout the Taiwan film industry. Theatrical B.O. improved last year, but from a low 2022 base. Last year, Taiwan productions increased market share from 10% to nearly 16%, helping to lift the...

Roschdy Zem, Sandrine Kiberlain and Elodie Bouchez have signed to star in Unchained, a prison-set dance feature to be directed by France’s Valerie Muller and choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj. Le Pacte is handling international sales.

Muller and Preljocaj previously collaborated on 2016 ballet drama Polina that screened in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori.

Zem will play an international renowned choreographer who launches a dance workshop in prison and guides inmates to break free of the chains binding them through dance as they seek redemption among their families outside the prison walls.

Unchained is being produced by Nicolas Mauvernay’s Mizar Films.

The Mauritanian master Aberrahmane Sissako reached glory with his previous feature, the foreign-language Oscar-nominated “Timbuktu” (2014). It was a harrowing, beautiful and potent film that hit the soft spot in combining the no-nonsense panoramic overview of the Islamist occupation of the titular city and the humaneness of the resistance to it. Ten years later, Sissako is, once again re-united with his co-screenwriter Kessen Tall, back on the festival circuit with his attempt at the globe-trotting cinema called “Black Tea”. It premiered at the competition of Berlinale and continued its tour at the Belgrade International Film Festival – Fest.

Black Tea screened at Berlin International Film Festival

Sissako opens his film with a sequence set, but not actually elaborated in any way, at a mass wedding ceremony in Abijan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Like other brides, Aya (Nina Melo) is excited, but when her time comes to say the magic words, she makes a monologue,...

Exclusive: After a five-year run at the company and the recent acquisition of Oscar nominee Io Capitano, Robert Aaronson has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Cohen Media Group (Cmg).

Aaronson has been overseeing Cmg’s LA office since 2019, primarily responsible for theatrical acquisitions, digital and ancillary distribution, licensing of the company’s classic movie archive, and programming its SVOD platform. He will continue to report directly to company CEO and founder Charles S. Cohen.

Among recent acquisitions for Cmg is Matteo Garrone’s Best International Feature Film nominee Io Capitano. Cmg is also coming out of the Berlin Film Festival where they picked up Black Tea by Abderrahmane Sissako, and Martin Scorsese-narrated doc Made In England: The Films Of Powell and Pressburger.

Prior to joining Cmg, Aaronson held domestic and worldwide acquisitions, co-productions and distribution positions at Universal Pictures Content Group, Netflix, Fox and New Line Cinema,...

After two weeks of new cinema, the Berlin Film Festival comes to a close this Sunday, February 25, with its annual awards ceremony. This year’s event marks one of change, as festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian, at his post since 2018, steps down to make way for Tricia Tuttle, who will take over for next year’s outing.

This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.

Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has snapped up second place on Screen’s Berlin jury grid after scoring an average of 3.0 from the critics.

The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.

Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.

Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-­born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.

Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has snapped up second place on Screen’s Berlin jury grid after scoring an average of 3.0 from the critics.

The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.

Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.

Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-­born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.

Part of reviewing films for trades like The Hollywood Reporter is to provide a clear and concise plot summary for the reader. But this task may prove particularly difficult for Black Tea — the first feature in nearly ten years from Mauritanian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako, whose powerful 2014 drama Timbuktu won several César awards and was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar.

Ostensibly, the story follows Aya (the graceful Nina Mélo), an African bride who dumps her groom at the wedding and flees to China, where she works in a tea shop and winds up having an affair with her seductive boss, Cai (Chang Han). But is that what really happens?

The trailer, as well as the official synopsis, would lead you to think so. In reality, though, this completely enigmatic drama never offers up a succinct plotline, skipping from one character and story to another, jumping back and forth between countries and time periods,...

Tea can be an energizer or a sedative. “Black Tea,” the first film in a decade from veteran Mauritanian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako, sips exclusively from the latter end of the shelf, passing through chamomile-type calm into outright soporific territory. And if that seems a trite metaphor related to the beverage, this tepid Berlinale competition entry has plenty more of its own: A love story between a Chinese tea-shop owner and an Ivory Coast émigré that is rooted in the rituals of brewing and consuming the blessed leaves, the film aims for woozy sensualism but falls way short on the ambient richness and X-factor chemistry required to sell such an essentially confected exercise.

It’s altogether a mystifying misstep from Sissako, typically a filmmaker of such formal and political vigor; by its close, the ten years separating “Black Tea” from 2014’s beautiful, shattering “Timbuktu” feel closer to an eon. Though this...

It’s been 10 years since Mauritanian–Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako last directed a film, but his much-anticipated return is suffused with a lightness that belies the long wait. A soft-focus romantic drama that channels some of the same humanism that steeped its way into “Timbuktu,” “Black Tea” finds Sissako applying his empathetic gaze towards the service of a much gentler vision.

It starts with a prologue of sorts set on the Ivory Coast. Aya (Nina Mélo), an Ivorian woman in her thirties, is about to get married but has just discovered that her future husband has been unfaithful. In a memorable opening image, a black insect walks through the folds of her white dress — an ominous fly in the ointment — as she waits for the nuptials to begin, her face twisting with uncertainty. At the altar, she astonishes her family by refusing to say “I do,” choosing instead to walk...

“Black Tea,” Abderrahmane Sissako‘s lushly lensed romance drama set in China, has been bought by major distributors in key territories ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Gaumont, which co-produced the film, has sold it to Caramel (Spain), Academy two (Italy), Pandora Films, Cineart (Benelux), Films4you (Portugal), Provzglyad (Cis), Mozinet (Hungary), Another World Entertainment (Norway), Film Bazar (Denmark), McF Megacom, Filmstop, Mb Taip Toliau (Lithuania), Imovision (Brazil), Av Jet (Taiwan), Falcon (Indonesia), Pathé BC and New Cinema (Israel).

The movie was also previously acquired by Cohen Media Group for distribution in the U.S. “Black Tea” marks Sissako’s follow up to his 2015 Oscar-nominated film “Timbuktu.”

“Black Tea” 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 Chinese culture,...

Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (Gea) has launched a new film fund called Big Time Investment to boost production of quality Arabic movies and announced a slate of Egyptian feature films toplined by a biopic of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum who is considered the Arab world’s greatest singer.

Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation, is recent hit, will direct the film titled “El Set.” Egyptian star Mona Zaki will play Kulthum who from the late 1920s onwards became the first prominent Arab singer to disseminate her work to the masses via the new technologies of the times: radio, the phonograph, cinema and television.

The fund was announced in Cairo by Gea chairman Turki Alalshikh who said Gea will serve as the roughly $130 million fund’s primary sponsor with the Ministry of Culture acting as a co-sponsor, according...

The first-ever edition of AfroBerlin put Africa in the spotlight at the Berlin Film Festival and in one key session asked how festivals, streamers, and the wider industry can — and should — support films and filmmakers from the continent.

AfroBerlin took over the conference center next to the European Film Market with standing room only for some sessions at the event, which was organized by Prudence Kolong’s consultancy biz Yanibes and the EFM.

Jacqueline Nsiah, a member of the Festival’s Selection Committee, spoke in a slot about empowering local filmmakers. She started her work for the Festival last summer and has bolstered its connections with the African film community. African films including Abderrahmane Sissako’s Black Tea, Mati Diop’s Dahomey, and Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Aria’s Pepe are in competition, and Mamadou Dia’s Demba is in the Encounters strand. “I think it’s not bad,...

Africa’s growing screen industries are making their mark on this year’s Berlin Film Festival, with three titles in the main competition, but how to unlock the continent’s still-untapped potential was a question on the minds of many at a conference hosted on Saturday by the European Film Market.

A partnership between EFM and Prudence Kolong’s Stockholm-based consulting firm Yanibes, AfroBerlin was launched to give a platform to filmmakers from Africa and the diaspora and “to find a place where they can share stories and experiences and be heard,” said Kolong, who also organizes the Cannes Film Festival’s AfroCannes industry showcase.

The event brought together industry professionals from the continent with their counterparts in Europe and beyond, underscoring the ways in which the often-marginalized African screen industries have elevated their international profile. “When we’re talking about the global film market…we are part of the discussion,...

Cohen Media Group, the U.S. distribution company behind Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano,” has acquired North American rights to “The President’s Wife,” a biting movie starring Catherine Deneuve as France’s former first lady Bernadette Chirac.

The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.

The movie, which marks the feature debut of director Léa Domenach, is nominated for a Cesar Award for best first film. The deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, executive VP of Cohen Media Group, and Charlotte Boucon, head of world sales at Orange Studio — newly acquired by Studiocanal — on behalf of Warner Bros Picture France.

The film opens in 1995, as Jacques Chirac becomes president of France. “His wife Bernadette now expects to be treated with the respect due to her lifelong work in the shadow of her husband. But mocked as too corny, she’s cast aside.

Taiwan International Co-Funding Program (Ticp) from Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) continues to make an impact at the 74th Berlinale. Black Tea and Shambhala enter the main competition, while Sleep With Your Eyes Open competes at Encounters. Festival veteran Tsai Ming-Liang scored two official selections with his latest documentary Abiding Nowhere in Berlinale Special and The Wayward Cloud at Berlinale Classics Special.

Black Tea is Abderrahmane Sissako's follow up feature after Timbuktu with Taiwan as a key location and two Taiwanese actors Chang Han from A Brighter Summer Day and Wu Ke-Xi of Nina Wu playing alongside Nina Mélo in this cross-cultural romance. The film also received investment from Kaohsiung Film Fund.

Also in the main competition is Shambhala, the second feature from Nepal's Min Bahadur Bham, which sees a woman journey across the Himalayas to prove her innocence. Liao Ching-Sung and Roger Huang are two executive producers from...

The build-up to the 74th Berlin Film Festival has been highly politicized, and the international jury press conference Thursday morning was no different.

Lupita Nyong’o presides over the International Competition jury, whose members include American actor and filmmaker Brady Corbet, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, German director Christian Petzold, Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca and Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.

This wasn’t like most jury press conferences, however, with members drawn into multiple — occasionally testy — discussions about their own political stances on events in Ukraine, Gaza and Germany.

Russia’s war in Ukraine was a central topic, with multiple journalists asking Serra about a 2018 interview in which he supposedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. Serra was asked whether he had changed his mind on Putin since the war:

“I don’t know,” said the director. “This is a political question. Everyone is upset with Russia right now.

"It's very special." "I love the scent." "So do I." Gaumont in France has revealed the first promo trailer for an indie relationship drama titled Black Tea, a brand new film made by acclaimed Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. This film is premiering in the Main Competition at the upcoming 2024 Berlin Film Festival kicking off soon this month. Looks like one of the best in the line-up! Aya, a young Ivory Coast woman in her early thirties, says "no" on her wedding day, to everyone's astonishment. After emigrating to China, she finds work in a tea export shop with Cai, a 45-year-old Chinese man. Aya and Cai soon fall in love but can their affair survive the turmoil of their pasts and other people's prejudices? Eight years after the breathtaking Timbuktu (in competition at Cannes 2014 and an Academy Award nominee for Best International Film), Sissako returns with Black Tea – starring Nina Mélo,...

A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...

Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian announced his final Competition and Encounters line-ups on Monday ahead of bowing out of the festival alongside Managing Director Mariette Rissenbeek at the end of the upcoming 74th edition in February.

News of Chatrian’s ousting by the German Culture Minister Claudia Roth back in September prompted anger in some quarters of Europe’s indie film biz. The seasoned festival programer made it clear at the time that he wanted to stay on but now appears to have made peace with the decision.

“It’s true that in the beginning I said I was willing to go on with the shared role. But then the people who are responsible for the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone,” he told Monday’s press conference in...

The 74th Berlin International Film Festival unveiled its full lineup Monday at its official press conference in the House of World Cultures in Berlin. Berlinale managing director Mariëtte Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented the films that will compete for this year’s Golden and Silver Bears both in the competition and encounters sections.

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios, a Berlinale regular and two-time Silver Bear winner — for A Cop Movie in 2022 and Museo in 2018 — returns to Berlin competition with his English-language feature debut La Cocina. Rooney Mara and The Cop Movie alum Raúl Briones star in the drama set over the course of a single day in a bustling New York City restaurant. Briones plays an undocumented cook in a relationship with Julia (Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to their relationship. Fifth Season and WME are selling North American rights to La Cocina with HanWay handling international sales.