Honeyland’s success

In the shortlist of titles in the running for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film , for the first time there is also a film that comes from North Macedonia . It’s called Honeyland and it’s an ecological-themed documentary that has been making a lot of talk about itself in recent months. 

At Sundance , the flagship event in the world of independent cinema, it won the Grand Prize in the documentary category, a special prize for photography and one for originality . At the next Oscars he will also compete in the documentary category. 

In short, his fame is destined to extend far beyond the borders of the small republic of the Balkans . The film has already been released in UK and US theaters and is also available for streaming on Amazon.

The story of the last Macedonian beekeeper

To understand the reason for all this interest, just take a look at the plot . The protagonist is Hatidze Muratova , the last beekeeper to live in a small village in the Balkans, without paved roads, electricity and running water, a four-hour walk from the nearest town. 

His life thus passes, tiring and routine, between the rhythms of the bees and the market where he goes to sell honey . With a strict rule, which she has been handed down from previous generations: half of the honey is taken, the other half is left to the bees .

Her routine is abruptly interrupted by a noisy and undisciplined nomadic family . Hatidze initially welcomes the new arrivals with the best of intentions, striving to establish harmony and arouse the interest of his father, Hussein , in the honey trade.

But he soon realizes that Hussein, with seven mouths to feed, has no interest in the rhythms of nature. The head of the family quickly forgets Hatidze’s advice and creates a rift , which is the fracture between nature and human intervention , between sustainability and the blind exploitation of resources. 

A true story of harmony between man and nature

Translating such a delicate and authentic story into images is a very complex operation. The two directors Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska began filming in 2015 for what, in their first intentions, was to be a short video. The project gradually grew and kept them busy for three years .

Crew members slept in tents in the village, surrounded by stray cats, fleas and – of course – bees, to establish a sincere bond with Hatidze and her elderly mother.

Since the protagonist speaks an almost incomprehensible ancient dialect , conversations are reduced to a minimum throughout the film. A choice that makes the final outcome even more poetic.