But Kotevska's main impression of Los Angeles is: "From the tall buildings, I cannot see the stars.". [37] In the United Kingdom, Honeyland was released by Dogwoof on 13 September 2019,[38] which was followed by a wider release in most European countries the same month. . Hatidze makes a living using ancient beekeeping traditions. All Rights Reserved. The film was initially planned as a short film documenting the region surrounding the river Bregalnica but its area of focus changed when the directors met Hatide. That was largely thanks to Mr. Stefanov and his fellow filmmakers. Honeyland contains elements of several documentary styles, including fly on the wall, direct cinema, and cinma vrit. She has been working with the bees all her life and everything she has learned, she learned from them.". But under pressure to produce more from a local merchant, he breaks Hatidze's golden rule of leaving half for the bees, with disastrous consequences for everyone. Honeyland (Macedonian: , transliterated: Medena zemja) is a 2019 Macedonian documentary film that was directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. She will be the only Turkish-Macedonian peasant in the starry audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. One can also call it fake.". Both the Sams and Hatidze's family are ethnic Turks and they speak in Turkish dialect throughout the film. In the film, she develops a special bond with one of the Sam boys. By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. Now this place and these people are different, said a wistful Ljubomir Stefanov, one of the films two co-directors, sitting in Ms. Muratovas garden. Ms. Muratova never married, while Mr. Sam and his wife, Ljutvie, have eight rambunctious children. From the start, Georgiev said they were very aware about their responsibilities to their subjects and the eco-system -- both natural and human -- that they come from. France 24 is not responsible for the content of external websites. Its impossible! sighed Mr. Georgiev. (Credit: Ljubo Stefanov/Trice Films) The Salt Massive Loss Of Thousands Of Hives Afflicts Orchard Growers And Beekeepers It's a solitary, hardscrabble existence, and Hatidze doesn't enjoy being cut off from the world. (Her last name, Muratova, is seen in the end credits.) [20] The production involved a crew of six: the two directors, two directors of photography, an editor, and a sound engineer. Honeyland. Like, for example, in the winter, when mother said there will be spring, something like that, was very [profound], he said. Calm and gentle, Ms. Muratova has a deep and respectful relationship with nature, treating her bees almost as collaborators. Nazife says she did not turn them down, but Hatidze's late father did. Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. . [59][60] In February 2020, the documentary won an award in the category of Best International Success at the 23rd Golden Ladybug of Popularity Awards in North Macedonia. We were tasked to produce a short documentary about the area, built around an environmental topic. Then Mr. Sam wanted help with a grant application, and griped about the problem with the well. The 225 Best Horror Movies of All Time With eight hungry mouths to feed, Hussein tries his hand at honey. [66], Other languages spoken in the film include, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, San Francisco International Film Festival, American Society of Cinematographers Awards, DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association, International Documentary Association Awards, Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, List of submissions to the 92nd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, List of Macedonian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "How 'Honeyland' Documentary Found Its Beekeeping Protagonist in Rural Macedonia", "Oscars: North Macedonia Selects 'Honeyland' for Best International Feature Category", "Oscar-nominated doc 'Honeyland' teaches a golden rule, rooted in science", " : ", "Oscars: How 'Honeyland' and 'For Sama' Portray Battles on Different Fronts", " " " , , ", "Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska Directors of Honeyland", "Pria o makedonskoj pelarici u utrci za Oscara: Pogledajte kako je filmska ekipa reagirala na odline vijesti", "Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov on Honeyland", "Shortlisted Documentary 'Honeyland' Expresses A "Universal Message" With Macedonian Beekeeper Story", "In 'Honeyland,' a solitary beekeeper delivers a warning about life in and out of balance", "Honeyland review beekeeper's life with a sting in the tale", "Review: 'Honeyland' is a heartbreaking documentary about a vanishing way of life", "Honeyland: Life lessons from Europe's last wild beekeeper", "Macedonia is the most polluted country in the world, please clean the air", "A brief guide to the 2020 Best International Feature Oscar nominees", " " " "" "", "Honeyland to Be Released in Australia and New Zealand", "Film Crew Spent 3 Years in Remote Balkan Hamlet. The IDA Documentary Screening Series brings some of the years most acclaimed documentary films to the IDA community and members of industry guilds and organizations. [23] Austin Chronicle's Josh Kupecki said the documentary is ultimately a "broader impact of humanity (in all its messy glory), and a document of so many things: grief, loss, happiness, and joy". [20] Kotevska said the most suitable description of the documentary's main theme is modern consumerism. But when they met Hatidze a beekeeper who returned half of her honey to the bees who made it, and lived in an abandoned village caring for her ailing, blind mother - they found a dynamic. She removes the covering and, with her bare hands, pulls honey-covered frames out of the hive while chanting to the bees and using smoke to keep . Hatidze generously imparts her methods to him but, pressured by money-grubbing marketeers, he disregards the half-for-them-half-for-us rule and wreaks havoc on the region's beekeeping . [39], On 22 October 2019, Honeyland was released in the US on video on demand and DVD by Universal Studios. What happened in the Ukraine helicopter crash? "The mother and daughter story is so beautiful and almost mythological, but with the honey, there is conflict, capitalism and consumerism. Hatidze lives with her mother, a half-blind 86-year-old who barely leaves their dwelling. In need of money, and inspired by Hatide's way of earning money, Sam takes an interest in wild beekeeping himself. [58], Honeyland was the most awarded movie at the 2019 Sundance Movie Festival, winning awards in three categories, including the Grand Jury Prize, the Special Jury Award for Impact for Change, and the Special Jury Award for Cinematography, all in the World Cinema Documentary Competition category. When we met Hatidze and consequently everyone else you see in the film, we made sure to let them know that we will be nothing more than silent observers of their lives. BEKIRLIJA, North Macedonia When the producer and two directors of Honeyland returned to the setting of their documentary in North Macedonia for the first time since it earned two Oscar nominations in February, something fundamental had changed. [30] Los Angeles Times journalist Justin Chang described it as one of the rare films that serve as an "intimately infuriating, methodically detailed allegory of the earth's wonders being ravaged by the consequences of human greed". Honeyland (directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov) is a documentary film that follows the life of a beekeeper, Hatidze Muratova, who lives with her elderly mother in an otherwise abandoned village in rural Macedonia. A woman walks alone through the untamed mountains and hills of Macedonia. She lives in the ruins of a farming village several hours from the capital city of Skopje, a 50 . But the similarities between people and bees do not stop there. Hatide lives with her 85-year-old, partly blind and bedridden mother Nazife, who is completely dependent on her daughter. It's been exactly two years, and it's now time to say thank you and goodbye. Guests Expected. We were very shocked to see this because it was obviously handmade, said Kotevska, and we started asking the locals around who they belonged to, who made them, and why. Read about our approach to external linking. So she was very happy to participate in this. She wanted to live in the nearby village so she could still tend to her bees and have a warm place to live during the winter. At her old home in Bekirlija, she proudly unveiled her latest bowl of liquid honey. [9], Honeyland is Tamara Kotevska's and Ljubomir Stefanov's second collaboration on a documentary movie after Lake of Apples (2017). Until "Honeyland" -- the "non-fiction masterpiece" in which the village beekeeper appears -- won a record three awards at the Sundance film festival, Hatidze lived in a tiny mud and stone house without electricity and running water in the wilds of North Macedonia. But her quiet existence is fundamentally changed when the nomadic Sam family, consisting of parents with seven unruly children, a noisy vehicle and a large herd of cattle, moves into the village. Informacje o filmie. Sundance 2023: Slashed Streaming Budgets and Theatrical Woes Won't Dampen Sales Description. "Everything we've heard from Hatidze refers to bees. Scott hailed "Honeyland" as "nothing less than a found epic, a real-life environmental allegory and a stinging comedy about the age-old problem of inconsiderate neighbours.". This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Georgiev said it didn't quite fall so easily from the sky. And Hatidze Muratova, one of the hamlet's last inhabitants and the star of " Honeyland ," was still waiting for the. She was born, she says, in 1964; she has, apparently, spent her entire life in this craggy farm region of the. Ms. Muratova, pouring some honey for her guests at her home in Bekirlija. We are filmmakers, not social workers.. Nominated for two Oscars, Honeyland charted the tensions between a hermitic beekeeper and her disorderly neighbors. [20][35] The finished film includes six of the twenty-five scenes portraying the relationship between the two. In addition to finding Ms. Muratova a new house, he and his team bought Mr. Sam a new truck and fixed his familys chimney. But there was big pressure from the public in Macedonia" for her to go to the Oscars. And this is how we came to it. But the documentary doesnt teach us much about cultivating honey. However, Hussein, the father of the family, wants to harvest honey on a larger scale and for more profit. [17][21] The filming technique has elements of direct cinema and cinma vrit. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Hatidze Muratova, the protagonist of "Honeyland. The roof still needs some work, but the inside is mostly done. This is exemplified when she chants "half for me, half for you" to her bees when collecting honey. You can see how unjust life was to her, because shes the greatest extrovert and artist youll ever meet, and yet shes trapped all her life in this abandoned area, and given the burden to take care of her mother, Kotevska said. ", "Honeyland review quietly heartbreaking meditation on rural life", "A Rare Nature Documentary That Tells a Deeply Human Story", "2019 Critics Poll: The Best Films and Performances According to Over 300 Critics From Around the World", "Best of 2019: Film Critic Top Ten Lists", " " " ", " " ": " , ", "Interview: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov on Making the Most Out of an Environmentally Sticky Situation in "Honeyland", "The documentary 'Honeyland' captures a story of resilience", "Here Are the Winners of the 2019 Sundance Awards", " , - 2020", "How 'Honeyland' Became an Oscar Game Changer", "Making Oscar history, 'Honeyland' shatters borders", "Post 'Honeyland,' More Countries Are Submitting Documentary Oscar Contenders", "Oscar nominations 2020: 'Joker' leads with 11; Greta Gerwig snubbed for best director; complete list of nominees", "2019 EDA Award Winners Alliance of Women Film Journalists", "The 2019 Boston Society Of Film Critics (BSFC) Winners", "Chicago Film Critics Give Best Picture To 'Parasite' And Best Director To Bong Joon Ho", "American Factory and Apollo 11 Top 2020 Cinema Eye Honors", "The 2019 Dallas Fort-Worth Film Critics Association (DFWFCA) Winners", "DGA Announces Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2019", "HONEYLAND won Best International Film Award at the 21st edition of DOCAVIV The Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival", "2019 European Film Awards: Nominees and Favorites", "The Lighthouse, Uncut Gems Lead 2020 Indie Spirit Nominations", "New York Film Critics Circle Names 'The Irishman' Best Film; Safdie Brothers, Lupita Nyong'o, Antonio Banderas Among Winners", "The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Announces 2019 Award Winners", "PGA Awards Documentary Nominations: 'Apollo 11', 'American Factory', 'The Cave', 'Honeyland', Others Make The Cut", "International Press Academy (IPA) Satellite Awards: 'Ford v Ferrari' races to the top with 5 wins", "The 2019 Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS) Nominations", "The 2019 St. Louis Film Critics Association (StLFCA) Nominations", "2019 Suundance Film Festival Awards Announced", "Parasite Finds a Host in D.C. Film Critics Awards 2019", "Honeyland: Why you need to see this beautifully crafted and compelling human drama", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Honeyland&oldid=1125146488, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Documentary, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, Atanas Georgiev & Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov & Atanas Georgiev, World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change, World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography, This page was last edited on 2 December 2022, at 12:21. Neon. However, after learning about Hatidze from their time spent in the local area, this plan soon developed into a three year stay documenting Hatdidze's unique way of life and her interaction with those . [57] Kotevska and Stefanov also started a campaign titled Donate for the Honeyland Community that sends jars of natural honey to donors of a fund that benefits Hatide and her neighbors. [40] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the film received an average score of 86 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Fejmi Daut, one of the documentary's cinematographers, said the lack of electricity in the village meant the production crew relied on daylight, candles, gaslight and a fireplace to achieve desired image quality. [34][35] The documentary includes numerous scenes of Hatide and her neighbors during the beekeeping process, including the handling of the apiaries where the bees are kept, the cutting of honeycombs and the collection of honey in jars. When Hatidze went for a dress fitting for the Oscars in the North Macedonian capital Skopje, it took "20 minutes for her to walk 200 metres because so many people wanted to have a selfie with. The HONEYLAND story began long before humans ever lived in the region, but our narrative starts with its last two remaining inhabitants: Hatidze and her mother Nazife. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. Nominated for Oscars for both best documentary feature and best foreign film, it is a visual masterpiece, introducing its viewers to an incredible, particular life . The story that unfolds in "Honeyland" is such a perfect parable of our times as we fret over the planet, that the New York Times declared it "the best movie of the year". The filmmakers spent three years with Hatidze. "People love her. We noticed you have an ad blocker on. Inexpensive, too! The situation depicted in Honeyland is one in which the inept neighbours arriving with their cattle soon add beekeeping to their livelihood but do so in ways that put profits first and come to threaten Hatidze's bees. Shes the only one remaining in this village to take care of her mother, because in the old tribe that she belongs to its a tradition that the last female takes care over the parents and doesnt have a family of her own, Kotevska. Hatidze lives in Bekirlija, an abandoned village with no electricity, running water or roads, where she looks after her ailing mother. Kotevska says there were many other disadvantages from the beginning of the shooting but most of them ended up working out well. The lives of two Turkish beekeepers make for a riveting metaphor for environmental. It was never the main source of income for the villagers, but the families passed it down through generations. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. It's a poem including history"[19] and listed the film as best pick for 2019. When matchmakers were coming, you didnt accept any? she asks her mother. It took filmmakers Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov three years of filming in the remote countryside of Macedonia to capture the footage they used in their Sundance-winning documentary, Honeyland, about Hatidze Muratova, a rural Macedonian woman who has dedicated her life to beekeeping. [10] The movie was originally intended as government-funded documentary short focusing on the Bregalnica river and the preservation of the surrounding region in Lozovo municipality, central North Macedonia. This approach was followed during the post-production stages and the first six months of the rough cut, which together lasted approximately 12 months. Despite his initial success, one of Sam's customers demands more honey than his bees can produce. [14] Upon arriving at the location, the film crew was introduced to Hatide. In Honeyland, one of 15 feature documentaries still in contention for the Academy Awards, the indelible main character is Hatidze Muratova, a woman from a remote section of North Macedonia. by Gary Thompson Updated Aug 14, 2019 Already have an account? We began Honeyland in the framework of a nature conservation project. The surprise hit at Sundance, where it won three awards, including the World Cinema Documentary Grand Prize, Honeyland is a visually stunning human portrait that has something sweet for everyone. She is an incredible woman, a natural optimist. Honeyland introduces us to Hatidze Muratova, a woman in her 50s who harvests honey from her own beehives in the mountains of Macedonia. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. If Id had a son like you, she later tells one of the neighbor boys, things would be different.. Hatidze especially feels the consequences. It really says something important about the world," he added. In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Muratova told her story that begins in a poor rural village in North Macedonia, leading in Oscar nominees. 99+ Photos Documentary Drama The last female bee-hunter in Europe must save the bees and return the natural balance in Honeyland, when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land and threaten her livelihood. Just as worker bees spend their entire lives taking care of the queen bee which never leaves the hive, Hatidze has committed her own life to the care of her blind and paralyzed . Life was hard but peaceful in this forgotten corner of the Balkans. Films selected for the Series receive exclusive access to an audience of tastemakers and doc lovers during the important Awards campaigning season from September through November. Hatide attended the event and performed two songs after receiving the award. It won three prizes at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for best documentary and best international feature at this years Academy Awards. She described Hatide's case as a portrayal of "how consumerism destroys natural resources completely". The film shows that to be true of the people living in the region too. Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. July 26, 2019 11:07 pm. This is how we found our protagonist. "People love her. (2019)/(),(),Honeyland. happened upon a pivotal conflict that would alter Hatidze's life: the arrival of a nomadic family of nine who settled nearby with a few hundred cattle and a fierce determination to make a living. Given her exceptionally poor living conditions in the nearly deserted hamlet of Bekirlija, Hatidze would often say that her main wish, out of her newfound fame, is to move to a better house in the near-by village of Dorfulija which offers far better living standards. [61], On 13 January 2020, Honeyland received nominations in the categories for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards; it was the first documentary in the history of the Oscars to receive a nomination in the both categories. Watch Kotevska and Stefanovs IDA Q&A below. [36] One mixed review came from Stephen Whitty writing for Screen Daily, who praised the painstaking filming and imagery but said its "commercial future seems limited" and that it "leaves plenty of questions and, occasionally, its audience behind". The untouched nature of Hatidze's home couldn't be further away from the glitz and glamour of film festivals. In the film, Nazife never leaves the house, but her wisdom guides her daughter at the time of crisis. This becomes clear in Honeyland, an exquisitely photographed documentary by Macedonian filmmakers Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska. In the end we came up with the best possible solution and that's to edit on mute. Their avarice, and the events that soon unfold, haveled many critics to praise the film as an allegory for the modern worlds impact on our most fragile ecosystems. The directors say that wild beekeeping was something that only a few people in the region learned how to do. The atmosphere in the village changes when the nomadic rancher Hussein Sam arrives with his wife Ljutvie, their seven children, and their imported domestic animals. In fact, the social worker felt he had made himself too available. She takes only half of the honey, leaving the rest for the bees. A conflict played out between human neighbours is also mirrored by the bees. That is until their nomadic neighbours, Hussein and Ljutvie Sam, moved in with their unruly herd of children, cows and chickens. "So, Hatidze's destiny was to stay and take care of her parents.". She lives by that simple principle. She lives with her mother and is her care-taker, although . Her life perks. The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore. While working on a short video commissioned by a nature conservancy project, the filmmakers met Hatidze Muratova, a middle-aged woman who ekes out a hardscrabble and solitary existence harvesting honey with ancient, sustainable methods across the craggy mountainous landscape of the former Yugoslav republic while caring for her half-blind and bedridden mother in a modest home without . Its an avalanche of issues, said Julijana Daskalov, the foundations program manager. Hatide instructs him on collecting honey and provides him with several bees so Sam can start his own colony. Usually you dont interfere with your protagonists but as soon as we realized Honeyland would be very successful, we thought we had to do something..

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