Is there a viable alternative for commerce to that offered by capitalism? Taste of Hope offers one possibility in the form of a tea factory in France owned by a workers’ collective. After spending years struggling to gain control from Unilever, they now face a new challenge as their idealism clashes with the harsh realities of the market. An elegantly crafted observational film, Laura Coppens’ attentive anthropological feature guides us through the factory floor into general assemblies and out into the supermarket, as the collective try to reconcile their utopian vision of communal existence with the ever present stress of the bottom line.

Supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK

This is the UK Premiere

Followed by a Q&A with director Laura Coppens

Laura Coppens was born in 1980 in East Berlin. She received her PhD through the University Research Priority Program Asia and Europe at the University of Zurich in 2014. Since then she works at the University at Bern as a research assistant, teaching documentary filmmaking. Her PhD film project Anak-Anak Srikandi premiered at the 2012 Berlinale. Coppens also worked as the head programmer of the Southeast Asia and Queer Asia sections of the Asian Hot Shots Berlin. Taste of Hope is her debut feature.