Honeyland

Fifty-year-old Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in a deserted Macedonian village without roads, electricity, or running water. She keeps bees and is the last in a line of independent beekeepers who sell honey in small batches. She trades it in the nearest town, a four-hour journey from her home. Every day she walks along the hillside to check her hives. She loves the bees, calming them with song and gently handling the honeycombs without a suit, veil, or gloves. She lives traditionally, in harmony with nature. But one day a large family moves into the area. Her life fills with the noise of screaming children, lowing cows, and engines. The new neighbors also keep bees, but they treat both honey and bees very differently. Tradition is replaced by hard business and maximum exploitation. Hatidze feels that what cannot be changed must be accepted. Yet the newcomers may seriously threaten her livelihood and the hives she owns. The film portrays a disappearing tradition of respecting bees and treating them as partners rather than as enslaved producers of honey. Beautifully filmed, this story offers hope for a change in humanity’s commercial attitude toward bees and nature.