Khalid, a charismatic big dreamer from Brooklyn, gets stuck in a small town on the Black Sea after chasing an opportunity for money that goes wrong. Being the only Black guy in the town, he quickly becomes the center of the village’s attention.
He previously worked as a barista and had a bit of a hip-hop career, but he abruptly quit his cafe job when he got word that he could travel to Bulgaria.
Khalid is drawn to take the long trip to Bulgaria because he had found an older woman online who liked how he presented himself. Also, the woman had been told from a fortune teller that the touch from a Black man could possibly cure her.
I suppose he was to travel there and hang out for a bit of shenanigans—and a promised financial windfall from a prospective sugar mama. When he arrived, he learned that the lady had died. His New York City street bop is all he has to survive in this foreign land.
In his pursuit to get home, he finds connections he never expected, and goes on a surprisingly transformative journey…finding love, community, and a way to make his dreams come unexpectedly true.
In the interim, he was left to his own devices, wandering the town trying to find work and shelter, after his bag and passport were stolen.
Khalid uses his Brooklyn skills and remarkably excels at a cafe, along with a local woman named Ina, and then expanding that to a successful mic night that welcomed a full house.
But he is not without rejection. The so-called mayor of the town despises him and is unimpressed by any popularity or curiosity that follows him.
That affects Khalid a bit, especially when he momentarily jeopardizes Ina’s opportunity to expand the cafe. But he recovers well from this setback and seemingly begins to believe that the Black Sea, located in Eastern Europe, could be his forever home.
“The Black Sea” is inspired by Derrick B. Harden’s [Khalid] travels to Bulgaria, and improvised by Harden and its Bulgarian cast.
Directed by Crystal Moselle and Harden, and starring Irmena Chichikova as Ina. Other cast members are Samuel Finzi and Stoyo Mirkov.
Harden is one to watch. He is a true renaissance man, high school dropout, motivated by his will to create togetherness. As a rapper, art curator, actor, and filmmaker, he has worked with WUTANG Brand, HBO’s show “Betty” and Sundance labs as an actor to name a few.
“The Black Sea” from Metrograph Pictures is in theaters December 6.
Take a look at the trailer: https://tinyurl.com/42bzwjnt.
