Honeyland

"Nominated for Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film at the 2020 Oscars, 'Honeyland' is truly unique. This Macedonian production is one of those well-edited and scripted documentaries that doesn't even feel like a documentary, as it has a well-defined story, a climax, and character transformation - just like 'Virunga' did with a war around a natural reserve in Africa. In this film by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, the focus is on a solitary woman in the Macedonian countryside who takes care of her elderly mother and hundreds of bees, which are responsible for her livelihood. It's hard not to be moved by this woman's journey, so simple yet so strong. It's a slow, quiet, simple, still movie. But it has an intrinsic poetry in its sequences, full of feelings. You need patience to watch it. But afterwards, it's hard not to remember Hatidze Muratova."