Past screening

Blind Ambition

Directed by: Warwick Ross, Rob Coe
Runtime: 1hr 36min Year: 2021
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Details

Directed by: Warwick Ross, Rob Coe
Runtime: 1hr 36min Year: 2021
Country: Australia
Topics: Personal Stories

An unlikely team of Zimbabwean sommeliers travel to France to enter the World Wine Tasting Championship in this immensely enjoyable doc that says as much about optimism and resilience as it does about noses and palates.

Joseph, Marlvin, Pardon and Tinashe are refugees who escaped violence in Zimbabwe to build new lives in neighbouring South Africa. Each of them struggled in the new country, facing prejudice and economic hardship as they supported their families. Finding jobs as waiters, each soon discovered a taste for the complex subtleties of wine, and after meeting each other, they decided to form the first Zimbabwean team to enter the Olympics of the wine-tasting world in France.

This corker of a film charts Joseph, Marlvin, Pardon and Tinashe’s journey to the championship, fuelled by humour, tenacious optimism and affection for one another. No less moving is the team’s pride in their Zimbabwean roots, representing their country on the world stage and offering a different perspective on a country torn apart by conflict.