From Zimbabwe to South Africa and onto France, four refugees with a passion for wine dream big and defy expectation in this feel-good documentary.
Every year, the best oenologists in the world come together for the World Blind Wine Tasting Championships (WBWTC). Regarded as the ‘Olympics of wine tasting’, the event, held in France and established in 2013, has proven to be very conservative and Western-centric. So when Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin and Pardon – who each fled Zimbabwe in search of a better life, then find it as sommeliers in the restaurants of South Africa – decide to form Zimbabwe’s first WBWTC team, they make an impression on this insular industry.
But as the men enter the competition and travel to Europe, it becomes clear that the wine-tasting mission they’re on is about much more than medals.
Helmed by Aussie directors and producers Warwick Ross and Robert Coe, Blind Ambition made its world premiere in competition at Tribeca, where it won the audience award. It will bow locally at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), before a theatrical release via Madman Entertainment.