Ljubomir Stefanov & Tamara Kotevska
North Macedonia | 2019 | 85 min
European Premiere
Language : Turkish
Subtitles : English, French

In a deserted hamlet nestling in the heart of an idyllic scenery in Macedonia, Hatidze lives alone with her infirm mother. Hers is a bitter, yet orderly, existence, which revolves entirely around collecting honey. Roaming the mountain in search of bees nests, looking after her hives, she has set herself a rule that guarantees a harmonious collaboration: take half of the honey, but leave the other half to the bees. When a Turkish nomadic family arrives in the village one day, this peaceful balance is abruptly broken. Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s camera gracefully captures the moments shared between Hatidze and this particularly unwieldy family, which, with its many and turbulent children, brings as much joy as it does chaos. But soon, it is the very survival of the bees that is threatened. With a remarkable sense of storytelling, the two filmmakers succeed in making this portrait of an extraordinary woman into a passionate realist tale about survival, the ability to adapt and the need to respect natural balance. A mirror of our own relationship with the world.

Céline Guénot

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