Synopsis
When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
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Cast
- Hatidzhe MuratovaSelf
- Nazife MuratovaSelf
- Hussein SamSelf
- Ljutvie SamSelf
Recommendations
- 100
The Playlist
There is an unassuming languidness to Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s anthropologic documentary about a rural Macedonian beekeeper, “Honeyland.” It’s a quiet and passive film that’s content to luxuriate in place and revel in solitude, which, in turn, both drags the narrative’s loose pacing and instills a certain natural structure that, once embraced, becomes almost mesmerizing. - 100
Los Angeles Times
[A] lovely, heartrending movie. - 100
The New York Times
The opening minutes of Honeyland are as astonishing — as sublime and strange and full of human and natural beauty — as anything I’ve ever seen in a movie. - 90
Variety
The opening frames of Honeyland are so rustically sumptuous that you wonder, for a second, if they’ve somehow been art-directed. - 90
The New Yorker
Honeyland swarms with difficult, ancient truths about parents, children, greed, respect, and the need for husbandry. - 88
Slant Magazine
As the world continues to suffer ever-increasing mass die-offs of honeybee colonies, Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s film reminds us that there’s indeed a better way to interact with our planet—one rooted in patience, tradition, and a true respect for our surroundings. - 83
IndieWire
This bitter and beautiful Sundance-winning doc focuses on a single beekeeper as though our collective future hinges on her hives. - 83
The A.V. Club
Though Honeyland is also about what it’s about; in addition to underscoring another inconvenient truth with planetary stakes, the film offers tender, patient portraiture to a woman wholly dedicated to her calling. The melding of the political with the personal has seldom involved so many stingers to the face.
