Hamoud, following the trail of many other Algerians, comes to Paris in search of work and money. And while he finds neither, resorting to petty thievery and gambling to survive, he paints a different picture in his letters home. When his mother arrives and sees the truth behind his stories of easy living, she urges him to return to Algeria. However, Hamoud prefers his new home on the literal and figurative fringes of Paris. While the tone is light-hearted, Mint Tea touches on many of the problems of Algerian immigrants struggling to survive in France. When Hamoud's mother ventures through the streets of Paris in search of mint to make traditional mint tea, the two cultures are colorfully contrasted, and one senses the half-way assimilation many Algerians experience in France: sharing a language, but not a culture.
Mint Tea, Abdelkrim Bahloul's first feature, was shown at the 1984 Filmex and Montreal Film Festivals.