On a Tea Plantation in Darjeeling

Year Published: 1962

Country of Origin: Germany

Description: 16mm Film - On a Tea Plantation in Darjeeling - BRD 1962 Script and Direction: Paul Zils Camera: Paul Zils and Fali Bilimoria The tea grown in the area around the climatic health resort of Darjeeling is one of the best in the world. The plantation we visit in this film belongs to an English company, which was allowed to continue working in the country even after India declared independence. A settlement has been built for the working families who move up here from the more densely populated Bengal, offering the workers good social conditions: The housing is rent-free; school, medical care and medicine cost nothing. Tea plants are grown as cuttings and planted outdoors. After 4 to 5 years, bushes have grown which produce the first harvest. From spring to fall, the pickers move to the plantations every 14 days. Only the bud and two tender leaves are picked and collected in large baskets on the women's backs. At the collection point, the harvest is weighed and transported to the factory. Here the tea is first placed in a drying room and stored for around 18 hours before it is mechanically torn and rolled. Fermentation now takes place at 30° C: the tea takes on its characteristic color and aroma. Three quality varieties can now be sorted according to the size of the leaves before the tea is packed in boxes and sent out into the world. In passing, the film gives an insight into the lives of Nepalese working families: we see the school where Hindustani is taught, a grocer's store that is particularly busy on pay day, and accompanies the family to the bazaar in Darjeeling on Sundays.

Online Copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVW2mqdXVe4

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