OSCARS 2020: Honeyland (2019)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science tend to ghettoize the nominated films that aren't competing in the big categories. Foreign language films are less likely to receive nominations outside of the devoted section for him. Animated movies rarely get nominated for Best Picture. Documentaries almost never crossover into any other part of the ballot. This year, however, there was an unprecedented leap that received very little attention. “Honeyland” was produced in Macedonia, in the Macedonian, Turkish, and Bosnian languages. Apparently the film so impressed Academy voters, that they nominated it for both Best Documentary and Best Intentional Feature. One film has never been nominated before in those two categories.

“Honeyland” follows Hatidze Muratova, a beekeeper who lives in the obscure, isolated Lozovo region of Macedonia. Hatidze inhabits an incredibly humble hut, where she lives with her sick, elderly mother and a handful of pets. Hatidze raises a flourishing bee hive on her grounds, making enough from selling the honey to support her simple life. The peacefulness of this arrangement is interrupted when new neighbors move in next door. Hussein Sam and his family travel the countryside in a trailer. They raise cattle and corn but, after seeing the success Hatidze has with her honey, decide to give beekeeping a try too. The effect on Hatidze's hive is immediate and devastating.

“Honeyland” is most valuable for giving we Americans a peek at a culture distinctly different from our own. Hatidze lives in what most would consider poverty. Her home is a dirt floor hut. The only piece of furniture she seemingly owns is the mattress her mother sleeps on. Yet she seems content. It's not just the standard of living that's different. I don't think I'm shocking anyone when I say I'm not horribly familiar with Macedonian culture or geography. The rocky, isolated landscape Hatidze lives in looks truly alien. The filmmakers – Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov – point their cameras at life as it happens halfway around the globe.

Obviously, Kotevska and Ljubomir have other goals in mind with the film. “Honeyland” is clearly a story of ecological balance. Hatidze prides herself on her beekeeping abilities, which are simple and unobtrusive. (And involves a lot of dung for some reason.) It works for her and the bees don't seem to mind too much. The camera is less charitable when focusing on Hussein's farm. The animals all seem sick or dying. He carelessly burns trees to make room for his crops. Even his motor home seems like an intrusion on the land compared to Hatidze's abode. Nature itself provides some on-the-nose symbolism. Dead bees are often found in Hussein's honey. While Hatidze has few issues harvesting her honey, Hussein is always repeatedly stung. Eventually, his reckless methods has dire consequences. Hatidze's hive starts to die, due to Hussein abuse of the local area. The point is evident: Work with nature and nature works with you. Exploit the land and the things that live on it and the results are ruinous for everyone and everything.

That's the intended moral of “Honeyland” anyway. In execution, what I really learned is this: Hussein Sam is an asshole. And not a smart one. Another reason the bees sting him is he never wears any protective gear when tending the hive. He makes his kids help, resulting in them also getting stung. After he ruins her original colony, Hatidze moves her bees to a hive in a tree stump... Which Hussein later cuts down with a chainsaw and steals! He leaves the responsibility of caring for the cows – cute little calves – to his wife, who is far too busy raising their three kids. When the cows inevitably die, Hussein blames everyone but himself. You're tempted to feel sorry for the kids but they are terrible too. They relentlessly bully each other and cruelly pick on the animals. (We don't really learn enough about the wife to develop an opinion on her.) This is where “Honeyland” most exhausts. You can only watch awful people be awful for so long before it grows tedious.

I don't know why the filmmakers devote so many scenes to Sam and his family bickering. The directors apparently shot for three years, so I don't know why they focused on that through the hundreds of hours of footage they collected. I would've much rather seen more of Hatidze cultivating her hive or her cute relationship with her mom. While the movie makes its point, and it occasionally captivates, “Honeyland” ultimately derails in a disappointing way. Now, did the film deserve its historic double nomination? Its placement in the Documentary category is certainly fine but I don't know if it's fair to “Honeyland” to rank it against the totality of cinema made outside the United States last year. [6/10]