Medena Zemja (2019)
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 89 minuten
Alternative title: Honeyland
Country:
North Macedonia / United States / Switzerland
Directed by: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
Starst: Hatidzhe Muratova, Nazife Muratova and Hussein Sam
IMDb score:
8,0 (20.406)
Releasedate: 26 July 2019
Medena Zemja plot
Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of North Macedonia. She makes a living from keeping bees and selling the honey they produce. When a riotous family moves in next door, it at first seems like a cure for her loneliness, but when this family also starts keeping bees and doesn't listen to her advice, their presence becomes a source of frustration.
Actors and actresses
Reviews & comments
hvdriel
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- 397 messages
- 357 votes
... or how you can portray major life themes in a tranquil manner in 87 minutes.
The cheerful Hatidze survives with her deaf, bedridden mother in an abandoned village in North Macedonia. No running water, no electricity. She searches for honey from wild bees ("Always leave half for the bees") and sells it at the market in Skopje, a four-hour walk from her own village.
Informal care, survival. That's all there is to it.
Then a nomadic family with seven children settles near her ruined house. At first Hatidze watches everything from a distance, then she advises them on collecting honey until the selfishness of the people seems to be too much for her.
In peaceful, beautiful images we sympathize with a woman who accepts life for granted and has enough of it.
Translated from Dutch · View original
De filosoof
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- 2487 messages
- 1698 votes
Initially, the film appears to be a documentary that shows the life of a Turkish beekeeper (Hatidze) and her sick mother in the countryside in Macedonia and which impresses with beautiful images and a Capharnaüm (2018)-like descent into a world that is as poor as it is fairytale-like, without electricity, etc., as it has not changed significantly since the Middle Ages. Then another Turkish family comes to live next to her and suddenly a story is told and you increasingly get the impression that everything has been staged (although neither animals nor people are spared, which is not ethically possible if it were staged). ): just like Capharnaüm, this film hangs somewhere between documentary and fiction and it is not always clear what is real and what is directed. It does not make the film any less interesting.
The story turns out to have a message: Hatidze lives in quasi-medieval harmony with nature, while the Turkish family introduces a modern element of greed and exploitation that disrupts the harmony with disastrous consequences for everything and everyone. This is of course a particularly current theme because it has become increasingly clear how disastrous our modern relationship with nature has become.
All in all a special and beautiful film; I only give it four stars because the film misses the impressive apotheosis of Capharnaum.
P.S. The film reminded me of the equally beautiful Le Meraviglie (2014), not only because of the bees but also because the message is the same.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
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- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
A fascinating story of an older woman who sells mountain honey to survive. I didn't immediately have the feeling that it was a documentary. Now it's not like they or the other characters are being interviewed or looking into the camera. Her knowledge about bees ensures that nature takes and gives. Everything is in harmony. By not being greedy and impatient, she knows exactly what she is doing to get optimal results.
That changes when she gets new neighbors. Done with the peace you can see her thinking. Those little kids just walk around a bit stubbornly and you can't have a normal conversation with those parents. Not that she is that sympathetic - her mother's care is often accompanied by some yelling and screaming.
But in addition to beekeeping, it is also a story of loneliness, the contrast between the city and the standstill of life in the mountains. Life without a husband or children and the fear of falling alone.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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