But it has still connected with a worldwide audience through the protagonists' body language, relationships and emotions. In a deserted Macedonian village, Hatidze, a 50-something woman, trudges up a hillside to check her bee colonies nestled in the rocks. The first reaction to her was probably a shock. [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. [19] Due to the remoteness of Bekirlija, the production team stayed there for three-to-four consecutive days before going to nearby towns for supplies and to recharge their filming equipment. So all the scenes with the dialogue, particularly, we didnt know whats going on there. Calm and gentle, Ms. Muratova has a deep and respectful relationship with nature, treating her bees almost as collaborators. The woman's name is Hatidze. "Honeyland" introduces us to Hatidze Muratova, a great character and a natural-born movie star. Both members of North Macedonias Turkish minority, Ms. Muratova, 56, and Mr. Sam, 70, have similar roots in rural poverty, but markedly different approaches to life. Inexpensive, too! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Honeyland received universal critical acclaim from film critics, who praised its attention to detail and applauded its conservationist message. [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". Hatidze Muratova is a Macedonian beekeeper of Turkish ethnicity: Outside, she sings to the bees that she tends with an expert, traditional hand. Honeyland revolves around her work as a wild bee keeper, as she ekes out a living in the rugged parts of the Ovce Pole plateau. "Not understanding Turkish was a problem during the shooting, but we decided to let them speak as they naturally would," says Kotevska. Honeyland received universal critical acclaim from film critics, who praised its attention to detail and applauded its conservationist message. 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. 9 of 216. The documentary Honeyland premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it was the most awarded film, winning the Grand Jury Prize, Special Jury Award for Impact for Change, and the Special Jury Award for Cinematography in the World Cinema Documentary competition. It was amazing," he said. 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 images in Honeyland are stunning.The film opens with images of a wide mountainous landscape, through which a tiny figure navigates. Honeyland Review: An accomplished and heartfelt documentary exploring a lost way of life and impact of the modern world on our environment . He elaborated, "a sensitivity to both petty human concerns and striking natural beauty is what makes Honeyland a particularly enthralling documentary. IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. [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. Honeyland received its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on 28 January and it has grossed $1,315,037. "People love her. 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. The documentary received numerous awards and nominations at film festivals, including three awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and two nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards in the categories for Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature. ", join us with a tax-deductible donation today. Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation. Sense of injustice lingers after Seoul Halloween crush, Chess gets a risqu makeover. "This was the most valuable lesson for us as the authors of the future films. Then there was a legal battle over an incident that predated the film, in which Ms. Muratova was attacked by Mr. Sams dogs. In one scene of the film, Hatidze asks her mother why she turned down offers of marriage that were brought for Hatidze. What happened in the Ukraine helicopter crash? For the film crew, said Ms. Muratova, it was more demanding to deal with us after the film than during the filming itself.. She stated that the movie was too fictionalized to be regarded as a documentary and claimed it was "a bona fide Flahertian re-enacted documentary. Georgiev realised they had something way beyond a morality tale about capitalism on their hands. If Id had a son like you, she later tells one of the neighbor boys, things would be different.. . She says nothing to the camera as she heads to a cliffside spot with no signs -- the directions are known only to her. 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 her," Georgiev revealed. Hatidze Muratova, the subject of the award-winning documentary 'Honeyland.' Neon A woman walks down a dusty, sunbaked road. 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. "honeyland," directed by tamara kotevska and ljubomir stefanov, is set in macedonia and follows the life of the region's last nomadic beekeeper hatide muratova, much of the film tracks the. Ms. Muratova never married, while Mr. Sam and his wife, Ljutvie, have eight rambunctious children. Its distributor Neon gave it a theatrical release in the United States, opening on 26 July 2019. [39], On 22 October 2019, Honeyland was released in the US on video on demand and DVD by Universal Studios. The film depicts how Ms. Muratova and Hussein Sam, a seminomadic farmer tried to coexist in one of the poorest pockets of North Macedonia. 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. [13], Initially, the directors were planning to focus on the rotational farming practices of villagers inhabiting the area around Bregalnica. Related 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. When the rules are broken, everyone pays the price. 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. [53], Dina Iordanova, an academic of world cinema at the University of St. Andrews criticized the directors' claim that the movie was not scripted or re-enacted and questioned the authenticity of the documentary in her review published in Docalogue. Honeyland, an Oscar contender for both best documentary feature and best international feature, may first appear to be concerned with wild beekeeping in the small, landlocked Republic of North Macedonia. 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. This was the most powerful sentence," he said. 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. And this is how we came to it. But it's a message which is in danger of being lost in the modern world. "So, Hatidze's destiny was to stay and take care of her parents.". [49], David Sims of The Atlantic called Honeyland "a rare nature documentary that's deeply personal". We dont understand Turkish. It's been exactly two years, and it's now time to say thank you and goodbye. Audience ratings certified by ACPM/OJD. When matchmakers were coming, you didnt accept any? she asks her mother. [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. What caught the directors' interest early on was observing Hatidze's life and her relationship with her mother. [11][12] The project was also part of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's program for preservation of North Macedonia's natural resources. 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. [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". Indeed, the contrast could not be more stark to Hatidze's solitary life in Bekirlija, where she tends her hives of wild bees, only ever taking half the honey so the bees would always have their due. (Her last name, Muratova, is seen in the end credits.) Then Mr. Sam wanted help with a grant application, and griped about the problem with the well. Honeyland introduces us to Hatidze Muratova, a woman in her 50s who harvests honey from her own beehives in the mountains of Macedonia. The untouched nature of Hatidze's home couldn't be further away from the glitz and glamour of film festivals. Hatidze Muratova, a 50-something woman, is, along with her ill mother Nazife, the last true resident of their rural village. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Honeyland (Macedonian: , transliterated: Medena zemja) is a 2019 Macedonian documentary film that was directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. 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 . Her story is featured in "Honeyland," the first film ever to be nominated at the Oscars for both best documentary and best foreign language movie. Hatidze approaches a beehive on a cliff 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. [23][24] According to Kotevska and Stefanov, during filming they mainly relied on visual observations of their subjects, whose language they did not understand. She has become a star. Honeyland has a strong ecological message, but it's the life story of the woman at the centre of the film that has struck a chord around the world. "They make you extremely creative, we thought of the solutions that turned out to be quite unique.". Hatidze Muratova, the protagonist of "Honeyland. Those with more knowledge than I have of beekeeping may appreciate the details better, but the extra hardships that come to . In Honeyland, Hatidze's echo of paradise is most certainly lost. [14] They spent the better course of three years visiting the families of the film. Nominated for two Oscars, Honeyland charted the tensions between a hermitic beekeeper and her disorderly neighbors. 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. Filming of Honeyland lasted three years, and 400 hours of footage was filmed. Hatidze lives with her mother, a half-blind 86-year-old who barely leaves their dwelling. Kotevska and Stefanov's camera captures the duo's nighttime bickering with remarkable intimacy, as. Still, the transformation of Ms. Muratovas life is not necessarily something to mourn, Mr. Stefanov said. It was very surprising because we didnt change what we put on the line. [64] Jake Coyle writing for the Associated Press deemed the documentary a "quietly revolutionary Oscar nominee" and said it "speaks to the increasingly boundless nature of [the] documentary [genre]". In one scene, one of the young sons is shown helping a cow give birth, while another boy attempts milking with his father nearby. "The Sam family that comes later are the other group of bees who are attacking the previous group of bees, which is Hatidze and her family. Its an avalanche of issues, said Julijana Daskalov, the foundations program manager. [29], According to Stefanov, the directors' main focuses in Honeyland were climate change, biodiversity loss exemplified by the decline of the bee population,[30] and the use of natural resources. Honeyland follows the day-to-day life of Hatidze Muratova, one of the last "bee-hunters", as she cultivates honey from the mountains of Macedonia. At its heart, this film is a character study, a meditation on the life of a woman who has carved out a precarious existence in an unforgiving place. 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. Kotevska says they were struck by how similar Hatidze was to a worker bee and how her mother resembled the queen bee. Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. One of the more unlikely films competing in this weekend's Oscars is a fascinating story about a wild beekeeper in the Balkans. In an interview, Hatide said she views her work as a means of restoring the ecosystem's balance. 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. Hardships that come to, on 22 October 2019, Honeyland charted the tensions between a hermitic beekeeper her. 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