Honeyland, directed by Tamara Kotevska and Lyjubomir Stefanov - Nine out of 10

Honeyland, directed by Tamara Kotevska and Lyjubomir Stefanov

Nine out of 10

Spoiler alert: the undersigned is biased…more than that, jealous at the success of this ‘new nation’, that has just been born – well, not really, they have been there since ancient times and this is one reason they have had and still have a dispute with Greece over their name, given that there might be a future claim on a province in Greece that could potentially be demanded by North Macedonia…

I mean, we have been there for so long and never had a nomination of our own – notwithstanding the fact that 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was more than deserving of an Oscar, never mind to be on the short list, since it was included by TIME Magazine and others among the best 100 movies made in the past decades http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/4-months-3-weeks-and-2-days-aka-4-luni.html... Winner anyway of the most important cinematic award in the world, The Palme d’Or in 2007, at the Cannes Film Festival

And here comes this North Macedonian film and grabs not just one, but two Academy Awards nominations, if granted, it has no chance in the category for Best International Feature Film and it could conceivably do better in the Best Documentary Feature chapter…

This is extraordinary for this magic, if often quite depressing film, the fact that the film makers just follow in the footsteps of Hatidze Muratova, an amateur, not a professional actress, the last female bee- hunter in Europe we learn, hence the Honeyland name, as she works with the bees, takes care of her sick mother, who is eighty-five and often unable to follow, understand what is said to her, making this viewer recall a (vicious?) joke

There is a joke about this amnesia:

Two old ladies go to visit a third. When they arrive:

“-how good to see you, let me make you a coffee

After a short while:

-              But I forgot to give you a coffee. She offers them coffee. Five minute pass…

-              Let me not forget to offer you a coffee. Another coffee and ten more minutes:

-              Before you leave, you must a coffee with me. More coffee and Then again:

-              You are my guests and I have not treated you with a coffee…on the way home, the two ladies:

-              Did you see dear, how “gone” Mitza is- she kept mentioning a coffee that never came

-              Who is Mitza?

As a matter of fact, watching this motion picture is not cause for mirth, there are scenes that hurt, the old woman hurts herself and the eye we see is terrible and we know this is not make up and/or special effects, just like in the case of the boy who is chasing and causing pain to animals and the little girl that falls against some hard surface…

It is so grim and gloomy, kids are so dirty and destitute that this viewer – who has seen poverty, for he comes from nearby – expected the worst, perhaps animals killed in front of the camera and felt he has seen quite enough after a while, sure and perfectly enlightened on the matter of the clear value of this extraordinary film making…