Mark Reviews Movies: HONEYLAND

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 25, 2019

A simple but involving documentary, Honeyland is a reminder that there are fascinating stories to be found everywhere. In this case, the story resides in the mountains of North Macedonia, where a woman in her 50s upholds the long but increasingly fragile tradition of a natural form of beekeeping.

In profiling the day-to-day life and work of Hatidze Muratova, though, directors Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, purely by chance, stumbled upon a tale that is, not only about a unique way of life, but also about what happens when that way of life, as well as the natural order it represents, is threatened by those who do not understand, respect, or care about such things. Here are conflicts as old as the human race itself, put into sharp and intimate focus.

After following Muratova's routine for a bit (involving harvesting honey from bees in spaces like a wall near her home or a small opening in a mountain and caring for her ailing octogenarian mother), the filmmakers reveal the arrival of some new neighbors: a nomadic family of cattle ranchers. At first, Muratova is thrilled to have the company, especially to play with the family's many children.

The father of the clan, though, discovers that his new neighbor makes a decent amount of money from selling honey. He decides to start keeping bees himself, and from there, the order of Muratova's tranquil life and career is repeatedly and increasingly put into jeopardy.

It's astonishing how the mounting conflict and its various complications effortlessly form a sort of narrative. At times, the film feels more like a subdued, naturalistic drama than an observation of everyday life. Once it begins, Muratova's understandable frustration with her neighbors doesn't abate, and the back-and-forth between the beekeeper and her mother is alternately amusing and heartbreaking. The patriarch's greed gets the better of professional wisdom, and he enters into a deal with a local man, who demands more honey than the father can produce.

The film stands on its own as a unique look into the lives of people in small corner of the wilderness—away from but always influenced by society. With its freedom of access to and tight attention on these lives, Honeyland also shows us that human beings are sadly predictable in our tendency to destroy for personal, immediate, and often fleeting reward.

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