Directed by: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and Nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
This film follows the life of Hatizde Muratova, a Macedonian lone bee keeper in a remote mountain village. We see how her livelihood is, and how a typical day in her life is, what her struggles are. The sound is done so well that at every scene where there are beehives, I felt so uncomfortable and I only watched it because I won't experience this (I hope not) if not for the film. Even one bee sting makes us panic, and we see their lives especially when the neighbors enter - they've kids and even infants who are left free, and they get stung by bees all the time - the situation is so bad. This reminds us of our privilege. The film also talks about loneliness, Hatizde's life is empty and she has nothing to look forward to in life - she tells her mother that one day when her mother will die, there'll be nothing for her to do. The film also talks about their plight - there's one shot where a tortoise is trying to step out, and it isn't able to and Hatizde comes and pulls it out - the same way Hatizde needs someone to pull her out of the situation. I've read that the filmmakers have bought her a house near to her brother's place, things should've gotten better.
The core theme of the film, the reason this film is made is to talk about how humans exploit the environment purely for profits - we see how the neighbors' greed ends up for Hatizde - it's not good for anyone, it's not sustainable too. The filmmakers said that most of the events in the film happened for real - it's really sad because the neighbors' family has a lot of kids, and they look at kids as workforce, and to sustain such families they resort to taking shortcuts. The film doesn't have interviews, voice over of the characters - it takes a fly-on-the-wall approach mostly, and this is a better approach if the people aren't comfortable talking. They tried to convey everything visually, the pace of her life is conveyed through extreme wide shots where it almost feels like a static shot.
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