Waiting for the next spring that will not be absent

Savannah 2022-01-20 08:01:12

An episode of "Bite of the Tongue" tells the story of a couple of bee pickers. Every year after the Qingming Festival, they will start chasing blooming seasons all over the country. They traveled for more than ten months a year and talked about marrying their husbands at that time. At that time, the wife smiled and said that her husband promised to take her into a sweet career, but she had never thought of such hard work.

The poster of the documentary "Honeyland" I watched a few days ago is so "confusing." In the pure and color-free sky, swarms of bees surround the heroine in the warm orange color that is as smooth as honey. Even in the process of watching, I often indulge in the magnificent scenery, forgetting that this is a documentary filmed over three years, and I don't want to admit that the pain and death are real, not the actor's repeated thinking.

As the last female bee picker in Europe, Kadiz lived with her elderly half-blind mother in a nearly abandoned village in Macedonia. Poverty and disease have accompanied her for half of her life. She went to the cliff to find the hive, took it home and waited patiently for the honey to mature and harvest in the nearby rock cave. When taking honey, she adhered to the principle of "take half and keep half", and then took it to the market in exchange for just enough to take care of her and her mother. People's money and daily necessities.

If this documentary is just like this, I am afraid that it will not win the highest jury award for the documentary work of the world film unit. It is the arrival of a nomadic family that makes the story more conflicting. Wanting to make more money, and unwilling to abide by the principle of "take half and keep half", this nomadic family collects honey indiscriminately, even the last beehive in the trunk of the river. The sturdy tree trunk can support people walking on it, but it can't stop the felling of the chainsaw. The bees they raised also killed the bees in the Kardiz Cave, and the two families had a dispute. Nomadic families want to make more money, but Kadiz has lost their source of livelihood.

More than 2,000 hours of material for three consecutive years allowed the director to tell such a pitiful story calmly and naturally. Compared with so many superhero-themed movies, in this remote village, Kadiz faced her mother who was ill in bed. The tears eagerly wiped off seem small, but there are too many grievances and confusion hidden in these tears, and every drop is real and worrying. And I also know that in addition to worrying about livelihood issues, Kardis also pays attention to the dead bees. This is the essential difference between her and that nomadic family. In her eyes, people, cows, cats, and bees on the cliff are all the same life. Therefore, she will save a drowning bee, care about whether the kitten is cold, describe the disaster from an individual perspective, and experience The pain of the individual, the sleepy life and the deserted village did not grind her thoughts and emotions rough.

The themes that the film wants to express are actually not new. Regarding people and nature, tradition and modernity, material and spirit, the usual topics are the life of Cadiz. I don’t know the house and house that the film crew bought for Cadiz next to the village. Whether the fundraising website established has relieved her, in the cold wind and snow-covered village, she is still waiting for the arrival of spring, she also believes that spring will come, just as the spring has never been absent for half a lifetime.

WeChat public account: farewell in life

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Extended Reading
  • Paxton 2022-03-28 09:01:11

    The people and the environment here have a bit of a neoclassical aesthetic.

  • Kimberly 2022-03-25 09:01:19

    SIFF Paragon Lujiazui Center. Clothes. This is a very difficult film to shoot. The director is great. Great photographer. Great people live. Three years, 2000 hours of material. A great triumph of patience. Applaud the women in front of and behind the camera.

Honeyland quotes

  • Hatidze Muratova: Take half, leave half.