"So, Hatidze's destiny was to stay and take care of her parents.". Now it has become the first film ever to get Oscar nominations for both best documentary and best foreign language movie, Hatidze has become a full-blown celebrity who gets stopped in the street by Hollywood stars. When he and the two directors visited in July, they were immediately overwhelmed by a new barrage of issues. One day, an . Filming of Honeyland lasted three years, and 400 hours of footage was filmed. That scene where she's taking the honey, she's saying, "Half for me and half for you." That was . Hatidze Muratova, the star of the documentary Honeyland, was given a new house by the producers of the double Oscar nominated movie. he, out of greed, breaks Honeyland's basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees); she, the last female beehunter in Europe, is left to save the bees and restore natural . IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Ms. Muratova had lost her new house key, so the producer had to find the workman with the spare. Now the filmmakers find themselves unable to leave entirely serving as mediators to, and occasionally protagonists in, the local tensions to which they once only bore witness. One can also call it fake.". https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/world/europe/honeyland-north-macedonia-bees.html. Neon. What caught the directors' interest early on was observing Hatidze's life and her relationship with her mother. [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. The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore. According to Kotevska, virtually none of the film's scenes are inauthentic the only part that had to be recreated was the Sams arrival in the village, which the filmmakers had missed their first year of filming. France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines. [25], The film's score was composed and performed by the Macedonian band Foltin under the musical supervision of Rana Eid from the production company DB Studios in Beirut, Lebanon. And now, as Hollywood movie stars are tweeting their support for the artistic movie, pictures of her new house were released. (Her last name, Muratova, is seen in the end credits.) [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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The film chronicles the tensions betweenHatidze Muratova, a local beekeeper, and a farmer in the remote hamlet of Bekirlija. The most awarded film at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival . [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. Directors Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov Starring Hatidze Muratova, Nazife Muratova, Hussein Sam Genres Drama, Documentary, Special Interest Subtitles None available This approach was followed during the post-production stages and the first six months of the rough cut, which together lasted approximately 12 months. We spotted Hatidze in the very beginning and just started shooting her. This is the first of many surprises in Honeyland (2019), a documentary set in a rugged, barely inhabited region of Macedonia where an extraordinary woman named Hatidze maintains ancient traditions of wild beekeeping. After another year editing, their first feature film was born. 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. This kind of involvement is partly a self-interested act, Mr. Georgiev said a means of both salving the crews conscience for deriving professional benefit from the lives of both Mr. Sam and Ms. Muratova, and warding off public criticism. Sam disregards Hatide's advice to always leave half of the honey for his bees and proceeds to sell the entire stock of honey. Several environmental topics are explored, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and exploitation of natural resources. 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. Honeyland opens this way: near-wordlessly, attending to the rituals of Hatidze's day, her trips to the nearest city to sell her honey. A woman walks alone through the untamed mountains and hills of Macedonia. Dan on January 31, 2020 at 11:01 am . [25][26] The camerawork, which is steady during the first half of the movie, later becomes less steady with the arrival of the nomadic neighbors. You havent been calling, Mr. Sam said. Mr. Sam has a more haphazard way with his cows, viewing them almost as antagonists. "We were doing it by instinct, and then as soon as we got the translations the plot was all there. The shoot lasted three years, with co-directors Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov camping in the village with their cameramen until their batteries would run out -- since there was no electricity for miles. But she refused a request to open up her hives, hidden in the crags of a nearby mountain, for fear the heat of the noon sun would harm the honeycombs. Kotevska and Stefanov's camera captures the duo's nighttime bickering with remarkable intimacy, as. It was very surprising because we didnt change what we put on the line. Honeyland is the story of Hatidze, a lone rural beekeeper in the spectacular, almost unpopulated Macedonian mountain countryside. Honeyland Review: An accomplished and heartfelt documentary exploring a lost way of life and impact of the modern world on our environment . Hatidze Muratova in Honeyland (2019) Close. Hatidze spent her time caring for both her bees and her mother, and with no spouse or children of her own, took some of the neighbor kids under her wing. 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". Culture 06.02.2020 / 14:39. 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. Hatidze lives in a village that is close to her brother relatives. Audience ratings certified by ACPM/OJD. A "Honeyland" foundation for her, the Sam family and the wider community, is up and running, with internet donors getting some of their wild "bio honey" in the post. Hatidze Muratova, a 50-something woman, is, along with her ill mother Nazife, the last true resident of their rural village. Description. Sundance 2023: 17 Films That Could Sell Big Among a Diverse Lineup We were tasked to produce a short documentary about the area, built around an environmental topic. The lives of two Turkish beekeepers make for a riveting metaphor for environmental. 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. Her new neighbors dont share her philosophy of taking only whats needed from the bees. Hatidze Muratova lives in a remote area of Macedonia and has one simple rule: When you harvest honey, you take half and leave the other half for the bees. BELGRADE, Serbia After taking the lead role in Oscar-nominated documentary Honeyland, Hatice (Atidze) Muratova left behind her previous life of poverty. [5][6], On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Honeyland has an approval rating of 100% based on 124 reviews, and an average rating of 8.4/10. Ms. Muratova, pouring some honey for her guests at her home in Bekirlija. [22] David Ehlrich writing for IndieWire gave the film a B+ in his review, calling it "a bitter and mesmerically beautiful documentary that focuses on a single beekeeper as though our collective future hinges on the fragile relationship between her and the hives". [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". [22] David Fear writing for Rolling Stone viewed it as a documentary that portrays "rural regionalism and lost art forms", also saying the directors ensured viewers are immersed in Hatide's way of living during the first half of the movie so they realize what is being lost during the latter half. 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. [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. . [55], Honeyland received its first monetary award prize of 30,000 from the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation at the 2019 Sarajevo Film Festival in late August 2019. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Hatidze first appears on a dangerous cliff edge wearing no protective mask, a cloud of bees swarming as she removes honeycomb from a hive in rocks. Both the Sams and Hatidze's family are ethnic Turks and they speak in Turkish dialect throughout the film. 2023 Copyright France 24 - All rights reserved. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude becomes a source of tension as they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice. The directors say that wild beekeeping was something that only a few people in the region learned how to do. It is well known that male and female bees fill very different roles, but the film shows everybody doing the same jobs. The duo told the audience at the International Documentary Associations (IDA) annual screening series in Los Angeles they would sleep in tents in their protagonists backyard for three to four days at a time for three years, amassing hundreds of hours of footage they would then spend several months sorting through. And as humans, how could they ever not? The stylists shared her pictures, saying she is now ready to . Her life perks. First we spent three and a half months, four months, just watching the material, the whole material. Squeezed between two rocky hills and circled by imperial eagles, the village was still reachable only in an off-road vehicle, via a steep, rutted track. But Kotevska's main impression of Los Angeles is: "From the tall buildings, I cannot see the stars.". Ms.Kotevska withMs. Muratova in her new house. Aremote village in the mountains of Macedonia is the setting for Honeyland, a documentary by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov that follows Hatidze Muratova as she maneuvers through . A.O. Meanwhile, someone had pilfered Ms. Muratovas honey, and she blamed Mr. Sam. In fact it was the other way round. "To be able to communicate with bees you need to have a personal strength to approach them, patience to learn how to tame them, and this way of life requires not force but wisdom," says Kotevska. The arrival of a nomadic familytrailer, shabby cattle, kittens, and a litter of children in towshatters Hatidzes serene world, and that tension sets the dramatic stakes of the film. Its distributor Neon gave it a theatrical release in the United States, opening on 26 July 2019. Titles . [31] Rating it with three stars out of four, Michael O'Sullivan from The Washington Post said despite the worthwhile patience it requires from viewers, the film "sneaks up on you in a quiet yet powerful way". The film has already enabled Kotevska and Stefanov to buy Hatidze a house in another village, close to her brother's family. Hatidze makes a living using ancient beekeeping traditions. Honeyland is the first documentary to receive a nomination in both categories in the history of the Oscars. This principle is based on the customs and traditions of her grandfather, who taught her bees need to use their own honey to obtain enough energy to fly and mate. To lessen the pressure on himself in refereeing the relationship, Mr. Georgiev created a foundation that works with the families independently of the crew. 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. Nature filmmaking that focuses only on the environment can feel a little dry, while so-called human-interest storytelling can be cloying; Honeyland succeeds by combining the two. We spent hours just thinking what to do with this material. The directors say the film profoundly changed their lives. But as often happens with the best documentaries, the filmmakers got lucky, because the movie they thought they were making a slice of life about a beekeeper became something more, a story about character and . Sucked into the dispute, the crew tried to stay neutral by providing legal assistance to both parties, and they mediated an agreement by which Ms. Muratova would withdraw her complaint in exchange for Mr. Sams promise to abide by a set of principles about his future behavior. And even with her newfound fame, Ms. Muratova said she still remained true to her vocation. [14][35], The world premiere of Honeyland took place at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on 28 January 2019. 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. The documentary also portrays Hatide's relationships with her bedridden mother and her neighbors. [36] In North Macedonia, the film had its premiere at the MakeDox Festival in Kurumli An on 28 August 2019, which was attended by the film crew and Hatide, and included a concert by Foltin. She has been working with the bees all her life and everything she has learned, she learned from them.". And Hatidze Muratova, one of the hamlets last inhabitants and the star of Honeyland, was still waiting for the filmmakers with a smile and a strong coffee. [56] Money received from the award was used to purchase a new house for Hatide in the nearby village of Dorfulija in Lozovo Municipality, close to her relatives and friends. Hyperallergic speaks to the directors of the first film nominated for both the Best Documentary . . Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. She has survived for more than 50 years in the ruins of an abandoned village with no electricity or indoor plumbing, eking out her existence by journeying to the closest city to trade the honey for medicine and fruit. And, like the jobs in the village of Bekirlija, the making of the film was shared between Stefanov and Kotevska, who is one of only a handful of female directors to be nominated for an Oscar this year. Hatidze Muratova, the protagonist of "Honeyland. Listen on Apple Podcasts. [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. Honeyland received its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on 28 January and it has grossed $1,315,037. She takes only half of the honey, leaving the rest for the bees. But she wasnt shy, and eventually allowed Kotevska and Stefanov to film her. Honeyland is the first film to compete for both the best documentary award and best international feature film. When we first meet Hatidze, she is ascending. The death of Hatidzes two sisters has tasked her with caring for her dying mother alone. They noticed beehives behind a rock on the mountain where they were filming. The eureka moment was when "Hatidze talked about half the honey being for the bees and half for her. But it is also kind of a payback, Mr. Georgiev said. 9 of 216. Film Review: 'Honeyland' Macedonian docmakers Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska make a visually poetic debut with this stark, wistful portrait of a lone rural beekeeper. Honeyland has much to say about conserving nature, but its lessons are also about human life and relationships. Ms. Muratova never married, while Mr. Sam and his wife, Ljutvie, have eight rambunctious children. 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. [31] Sheena Scott, writing for Forbes, said Sam's actions were motivated by profit "to the detriment of a more suitable sustainable way of living". Using prize money won by the film, he and his colleagues had found her a new house in Dorfulija, a larger and wealthier village about half an hours drive away. 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. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude becomes a source of tension as they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice. "Everyone has to do the same work to survive. 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