14/03/2024 - Crystal Moselle and Derrick B Harden craft a touching and optimistic fish-out-of-water tale of finding community in unexpected places

What does an African American man from Brooklyn do when he’s stuck without money or a passport in small town Bulgaria? Opening on a modestly absurdist proposal involving a fortune teller informing her client that she will be cured by the touch of a Black man, Crystal Moselle and Derrick B Harden’s The Black Sea charts out a charming fish-out-of-water story that just premiered in SXSW’s Narrative Feature Competition. Not qualifying as a purely vibes-only film, The Black Sea sometimes drifts while oversimplifying character dynamics in an otherwise meaty story. Partially inspired by Harden’s experiences in Bulgaria, the film delivers with tenderness on its promise of found family in the most unexpected of places, complete with comedic strokes.

Khalid (Derrick B Harden in his first acting role) flies to Bulgaria in what could easily be a honeypot scam — an elderly woman who finds him on Facebook promises to pay him thousands of dollars in exchange for some “adult time”, purportedly hoping to be “cured” from an unknown illness. Upon arrival, Khalid learns that the woman has died and is forced to begin working at the docks under the exploitative boss Georgi (Stoyo Mirkov) after his belongings are stolen. Fortunately, he meets his match in Ina (Irmena Chichikova), a local woman running a travel agency who rivals him in wit and work ethic. Together, they open a café that becomes increasingly popular (American spins on Bulgarian snacks and hip-hop open mic nights enthrall the locals), and the friendship of the unlikely duo flourishes despite their disparate backgrounds.

Khalid oozes pure charisma: the neighbourhood teens look up to him and the elderly women swoon. On the whole, everyone in town is welcoming, although Moselle and Harden do acknowledge the instances of casual racism that permeate Khalid's stay — it’s not all coming up roses. Even though Khalid’s many ups sometimes don’t seem to realistically balance his downs, the film’s upbeat tone is its glue, its central friendship endearing enough to be jealous of. However, the film’s tension lacks at times, especially near the middle when the antagonism plays out simplistically in a triangle between Khalid, Ina, and a vindictive Georgi — who we learn is Ina’s ex-boyfriend. The Black Sea also teases something more between the central two but never lands in clichéd territory.

Cinematographer Jackson Hunt relies heavily on handheld camera to track the protagonist, whose journey is fittingly just as meandering as the frame. Moselle’s documentarian roots (her 2015 film The Wolfpack secured the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance) can perhaps best be seen here, where viewers quickly get a strong sense of the community through the people Khalid meets in his day-to-day life. A genre-bending score by Charles Moselle further complements our hero’s precarity — but ultimately, the joy he also finds through every unanticipated encounter.

The Black Sea is produced by Kotva Films (US/Bulgaria) and Give Thanks Films (US). World sales are being handled by UTA (US).