The Black Sea, 2024.
Directed by Derrick B. Harden and Crystal Moselle.
Starring Derrick B. Harden, Irmena Chichikova, Stoyo Mirkov, and Samuel Finzi.
SYNOPSIS:
A man journeys to a small Eastern European coastal town where he finds unexpected connections despite being the only black person in the area.
There is a real profundity about The Black Sea. This gorgeous lyrical deep dive into the nature of community and social interaction offers life, love and laughs in all their splendour. If that sounds a little cheesy, it’s really not meant to, as the film takes an unflinching take on finding oneself cut adrift in a strange land.
The brilliance of the film, superbly captained by Derrick B. Harden’s fabulous performance, is in the genuine look at how we act as humans wherever we happen to be.
In this film’s case the ‘where’ happens to be Bulgarian coastal town off the eponymous sea. The ‘black’ also alludes to the lead’s ethnicity, which is a crucial point in the plot.
The hook of the film is that Khalid (Derrick B. Harden) has been hired by a family in Bulgaria to perform a particularly strange one-off job. An unwell older family member introduced in an opening scene is spun a local legend that the touch of a black man can heal their ails.
Khalid, bored of his regular retail job in Brooklyn, jumps at the chance and heads off with little preparation. Once there, he finds that the family member in need of his particular touch has unfortunately passed away. He’s left stranded, with zero funds to get back to New York.
What follows is a complex travel through the town as Khalid attempts to find work in order to travel. Luckily for him, he’s such a gregarious character that people tend to warm to him. He also has plenty of skills in creating matcha drinks, which is informed as he says by his generous learning from Brooklyn’s recent gentrification.
The heart and soul of the picture is Harden’s performance. Without such a captivating performer the film could have been a somewhat unfocused meander charting an American take on Bulgarian small-town life. But with Harden’s Khalid making friends and impressing with his dextrous raps and seize the day type optimism, the film blossoms into a sweet little picture of brightness.
Music and hip-hop are also integral to the film. Khalid, with zero Bulgarian to draw on, initially meets people by greeting Bulgarians in the street who happen to be wearing hip hop T-shirts and caps. The cafe he helps to set up with local travel agent Ina (Irmena Chichikova), gets named Blue Flowers. Lovers of hip hop, as Khalid (and Harden) obviously are, will know Blue Flowers as a 1990’s joint from Ultramagnetic MCs rapper Kool Keith. This kind of detail really brings out Khalid’s character and provides depth to this almost fairy tale like comedy drama about being away from home and then discovering a new one.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk
