The Black Sea (2024)

The-Black-Sea
The Black Sea

You may take a Black man out of Brooklyn, but you can never take Brooklyn out of the Black Man. That’s the saying that echoes in the movie The Pearl of The Black Sea which Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden co-directed and which embodies more or less the terminus of modern human ‘Darwinism’ or at the very least a variant of it. Rather than promoting a slogan of ‘survival of the fittest’ their dramedy set in Bulgaria has a more shapely version of it with emotive appeal.

After being approached Khalid mistakenly assumed it was time to start working as a sugar baby. Khalid quits his job and decides to move to Bulgaria in search of a better life. Also, it didn’t take long to find a man who was willing to pay for his services but was above 60, and as soon as he landed, he was contacted and advised against taking on the job as the client had already passed away. He had a very limited amount of money with him and was already left nearly penniless in a completely foreign country, the only reason wipe was there was so he could do physical tasks to save up money to get back home. However, his luck changed when he met a travel agent by the name of Ina, the two of them decided to open a shop where Khalid would be in charge of coffee, much to the annoyance of Ina’s former boyfriend Georgi, who was a Russian mafia kingpin and also exited the city unsurprisingly. Khalid lost his job at the coffee shop and his immigration officer or lawyer owing to shape shifter Richard Flynn. It was an action of this type.

The current stage is devoid of Moselle’s drama. Being a contemporary filmmaker, she has shifted gears and according to her claims, wants to film the mundane parts.

Whether it be the tales she narrates in Skate Kitchen or the documentary style like that of The Wolfpack, her unusual approach to storytelling enables her to have gestural sketches for a project and make it look pretty. Starting with the Black Sea, these are commentaries. The French filmmaker, Moselle, has said that she prefers to include a variety of subjects and, in this film, she proves that. It shows her extraordinary and at the same time outlandish talent for the camera and reveals the beauty of the place. Just as she did in New York City with Skate Kitchen and Betty, here she does with Bulgaria.

Taking the Black man out of Brooklyn is impossible but Brooklyn will always have the Black man, this is the inert wisdom that comes out of Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden’s The Black Sea which seeks to be experimental in its narrative of a human Darwinism or even one version of it in its modern interpretation. For older ideas such as natural selection, their comedy-drama ‘Bulgaria’ introduces it in a more ‘humanistic’ way.

Khalid attended a professional barista course. But, after receiving an offer from a Bulgarian sugar mummy, he could not continue his career as a barista. The moment he arrives at this woman’s house, she is dead. Khalid’s meager cash set makes him feel that he’s the only Black man in Bulgaria and he desperately searches for odd jobs, with hopes of earning enough to go back home. He is trying to make mistakes hoping to get the attention of local travel iris agent Ina’s (Irmena Chichikova) beauty. Although they were inspired by Khalid’s practical experience and coffee-making skills, it is Ina’s life experience that makes them realize their mutual desire to set up a coffee shop contrary to Georgi’s (Stoyo Mirkov) objections, Ian’s ex-husband, who has the mafia calling the shots in the town.

As long as Crystal Moselle is still alive, she is arguably one of the most down-to-earth filmmakers today who can capture the slice of earth of not only people but also modern life through the camera, like Chole Zhao.

Her approach is so defined that she has no necessity to write a script for Skate Kitchen and The Wolfpack and also for her actors to rehearse regardless if she is doing scripts for narrative or documentary pieces. For this kind of project and pieces, the Black Sea is sufficient. This quality of hers – of directing is also used by her in every one of her works. She uses it to maintain her unconventional camera style by showcasing the beauty around her. For skater Kitchen and Betty – she targeted New York City, and now with the Black Sea she targets Bulgaria.

The image is for the most part elasticized by a voice which is Derrick B. Harden’s, and since he is a one-man band, as such, his style, fit as well as charm is so strident that it pushes the story forward. He has this black old type of bearing approach; a combination of a street’s endorsement alongside a self-deprecating disposition which does not get too serious as they just do their thing. But then again, the idle, sociable hustler character is a plus. He is so Brooklyn that even some of the skills he possesses are useful in situations when they shouldn’t be. For some unknown reason, a picture pops into my head where Khalid is showing Ina how to prepare matcha correctly, that politeness level that makes me think Russian women are brought up by czars, saying in a polite voice which can be low “This is all I can drink, ever since they gentrified Brooklyn.”

Khalid, in one of his meetings, while going out, comes across with a man with a DMX shot on his t-shirt, and goes up to him without thinking and befriends him. There is something electrifying about him. Being a Brooklynite myself I couldn’t help to get entertained in watching those humanistic frames on the screen.

Seeing Harden’s ad-libs embodying the Bulgarian culture and Khalid’s vibrant persona, someone’s summer houses don’t get stretched into an overblown movie. Now that’s an absolute treat to the eyes!

The first part of The Black Sea is filled with funny stocks that revolve around the same characters, but tell a different story, and somehow manages to throw Khalid right into the center of the funny and charisma-packed events. They are the type of jokes that are cool and don’t require any Borat wise rudeness or such.

One noteworthy amusing encounter occurs when Khalid consents to work as a pool boy in a cruise ship, on the condition that he wears nothing but Speedos. That scene is comedy gold with a punch line which should have people laughing.

With Khalid receiving more of the feeling of belonging and being loved, mostly from Ina, one gets absorbed deep into this captivating universe that pulls you in. Moselle and Harden, un-rehearsed, seem to channel a Paddington style of nice-core energy but instead alongside of a rough plot about self-sustaining, redemption, and a sense of acceptance: ‘Mummy, look at what I did, love me no more, I require someone to take care of business first”.

There is a risk of thinking that the film borders to being a Cohen Baron film with the curious Bulgarian culture that harshen Khalid’s view in comparison. But, this said, it happily constantly appears to drift away from this praise-worthy issue.

The film is not long per se however the pacing is laughable at times. Once the plot commences, it gets segmented into short clips too many times in order to decorate the story. Also, the typical romantic alienating angle between ina and Khalid, do not hit as they ought to.

As a result of the strong collaboration of Crystal Moselle behind the camera and Derrick B. Harden in front, it is a rare case where ‘cinematic freestyling’ comes out. What The Black Sea manages to achieve, is offering us a series of entertaining dramedy that portrays Bulgaria in a very nice way, almost as if it were an adjoining area of Brooklyn.

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