Honeyland
Consolidated Kahala
Pupule rating: 3.9 (out of 4)
In the Hollywood/Disneyfied version, this would be “Based on a True Story,” the many children in this would have helped the lead character turn this rocky, lonely old village into an idyllic, lush haven and all the honeybees would smile as they dance on their honeycombs.
This is reality, however, and the grittiness of this is the result of survival, of carving out an existence in poverty.
There are timely moments in this documentary tale when the story could be about extreme bad, as in bad neighbors. This rural mountain village in Turkey is home for Hatidze Muratova and her elderly, bedridden mother. Hatidze is resourceful, a beekeeper and honey collector of extraordinary skill and knowledge. When she songs - or wails — her bees know she is only taking half of their creation. The combs flow with deep golden honey that comes from her stocks near home, and one up in a dangerously remote spot up the dry, desolate mountain.
The story essentially begins at that most remote of hives, and ends there, too. Or the documentary does. Like all great films, Honeyland leaves me wanting more, much more. After the neighbors devastate her bees with angry bees of their own — all because the patriarch of that family was greedy about making a quick buck, taking all of his hives’ honey rather than just half — Hatidze remains stoic. She doesn’t retaliate. She tries to reason with him, his wife, and they continually lie to her.
She loves the children, and the one young son who respects her — and understands what it means to work with nature, respect the bees and the relationship between each — is the only one who stands up to the patriarch. For that, he is tormented by him, and to the boy’s credit, he doesn’t back down.
Honeyland is earthy. Pure. And when purity is stained by the greed and corruption of the outside world, it is a bitter pill to swallow. Hutidze loses everyone and everything she loves by the end, but somehow never loses hope, either. That’s what makes this, ultimately, a gem worth seeing. Especially for the most bitter of pessimists.
#honeyland
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