Quite by chance I happened to watch this film on HBO.
It took me a bit to realize that it is a documentary, filmed in Macedonia over a period of three years.
I generally dislike foreign films and this one is not for everyone, but my god, it is moving and devastating.
Some people will see it as an ecological parable, even an attack on capitalism, but it is mostly a character study of a single older woman who lives with her ailing 85-year-old mother in a small, remote home without electricity or running water in the uplands of Macedonia.
Their only source of income is the honey the woman sells, gathered from the bees she keeps. She has never married and barely ekes out a living for the two of them.
Then a large family moves in close by. The father learns there is money to be made by selling honey. And the trouble starts.
You feel as if you are watching something filmed in the middle ages, except now and again vapor trails arch high across the sky. It is hard to believe life is so hard in 2019 (when it was filmed).
The film is mostly a testament to the human will to survive and endure hardship and to wrest from the rocks of the desert some sense of joy and meaning.
The lighting is all sunlight and lanterns and candles and campfires. Beautifully done.
Again, it is slow, hard to watch at times (child nearly drowns on camera), not for everyone.
But it is unforgettable.
It took me a bit to realize that it is a documentary, filmed in Macedonia over a period of three years.
I generally dislike foreign films and this one is not for everyone, but my god, it is moving and devastating.
Some people will see it as an ecological parable, even an attack on capitalism, but it is mostly a character study of a single older woman who lives with her ailing 85-year-old mother in a small, remote home without electricity or running water in the uplands of Macedonia.
Their only source of income is the honey the woman sells, gathered from the bees she keeps. She has never married and barely ekes out a living for the two of them.
Then a large family moves in close by. The father learns there is money to be made by selling honey. And the trouble starts.
You feel as if you are watching something filmed in the middle ages, except now and again vapor trails arch high across the sky. It is hard to believe life is so hard in 2019 (when it was filmed).
The film is mostly a testament to the human will to survive and endure hardship and to wrest from the rocks of the desert some sense of joy and meaning.
The lighting is all sunlight and lanterns and candles and campfires. Beautifully done.
Again, it is slow, hard to watch at times (child nearly drowns on camera), not for everyone.
But it is unforgettable.