Coffee & Allah

Name: New Zealand Film Commission
Price range: $

Director’s Statement: Sima Urale “On reading Coffee & Allah, I was immediately attracted to the main character Abeba, a Muslim Ethiopian woman, and her journey in a strange new land. Beingan immigrant myself, I...

New Zealand Production

Short 2007 Drama 14.00 minutes

Coffee & Allah is a film about a young Muslim woman’s appetite for coffee, Islam and a good game of badminton. When Oromo Ethiopian Abeba Mohammed moves to suburban Mt Albert to unite with her sister under the refugee family reunion quota, she has nothing but her faith in Allah, a taste for Ethiopian coffee, and a zest for life to sustain her. From behind her purdah, and no knowledge of English, Abeba struggles to make a connection with the people of her new homeland. Nonu, a Samoan barrista at the local coffee shop takes a shine to her. But, the cultural chasm separating them seems unbridgeable until one afternoon, a spontaneous game of badminton with an unknown neighbour ultimately leads Abeba to accept Nonu’s gift of friendship.