Honeyland

Directors Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska show the same infinite patience and care in telling the story of their subject, a Macedonian beekeeper named Hatidze, that Hatidze shows in caring for her bees.

This movie about Europe's last wild beekeeper is complex, resonant, and visually magnificent.

As fly-on-the-wall documentaries go, Honeyland is a particularly fine example. There is no narration: the rather sad, but enveloping, story is told in purely visual terms, and the photography is outstanding.

Hatidze's story is heartbreakingly moving, and needs no heavy editorialising. Her strength, dignity, resilience and humanity carry the film's truth and weight.

Terribly sweet. Terribly sad.

This is one of the best movies of the year... Over and over again while I was watching it, I was asking myself "How did they get that shot?"

Honeyland ... gives us a privileged look into the life of someone we will never meet, it transports us to a place we will never visit, and it’s the distillation of the environmental and social problems that we must somehow solve if humanity is to survive.

In her mysterious way, Hatidze’s character is as gorgeous and singular as the breathtaking images collected by cinematographers Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma.

Haditze's character and situation may not appeal to everyone, but those who tune in to it will recognise that Honeyland is a rare achievement.

Cinematographers Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma take a very fly-on-the-wall approach, always in observation mode even in instances when you wish they would intervene.