The Untouched

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One of the more unlikely films to compete will be awarded in this weekend's Oscars, is a fascinating story about a wild beekeeper in the Balkans. Honey country has a strong ecological message, but it is the Life Story of The Woman in the middle of the film that has struck a nerve around The World .

Honey country is The First film to compete for The Best documentary film award and The documentation of success is the more remarkable, since it began almost accidentally.

Macedonian Directors Tamara Kotevska, and Ljubo Stefanov were research in a remote mountainous area of the country, for a short nature documentary. She noticed hives behind a rock on the mountain where they were filming. This led them to Hatidze Muratova, one of Europe's last wild bee-Keeper, the old methods passed down through the generations for the harvest of Wild Honey .

Haditze Muratova, in your house, that was the beginning of a "great adventure" of three years was the filming of through scorching summers and freezing winters. After a further year of editing, whose first feature film was born.

Honey country Chronicles a period of Hatidze of life, if your the Ancient Methods of beekeeping came from, and conflict with, those of a novice in the remote region.

The Directors say the film is profoundly alters their lives. Honey country has a lot to say about the preservation of nature, but his teachings are also about human lives and relationships.

share to survive,"Half for me and half For You " is Hatidze mantra, she repeated, as she tends to The Bees on the mountain. But it is a message that is in danger of being lost in the modern world.

Hatidze lives in Bekirlija, a deserted village without electricity, running water or roads, where she cared for her sick mother.

the Honey that is sold on the market in the capital city of Northern Macedonia, Skopje, their only source of income. It only takes half of the Honey , the rest for The Bees .

she lives by the simple principle. "The exchange with The Bees and with nature is The Key to your survival," says Stefanov.

Hatidze approaches a hive on a cliff, But their peaceful existence is fundamentally changed when the nomadic Sam's family, consisting of parents, with seven naughty children, is a noisy vehicle and a large herd of cattle, pull in The Village .

If the Sam family, she welcomes you with an Open Heart , and teaches you How To get to the harvest of forest Honey .

But, Hussein, The Father of The Family , wants to harvest Honey in a larger scale and for more profit. He takes all the Honey from their own hives, but his bees respond to this by attacking the hives Hatidze addiction, the destruction, and there is a conflict between the human neighbors.

Kotevska says that The Directors will want to to paint a portrait of the Sam family, to survive as symbols of destruction, but merely as a "mirror for all of us who make bad decisions", based on the need, and to deliver.

wisdom "is stronger than violence", in Order to communicate in the situation with bees, you need to learn to be a personal strength, to approach them, patience, How To tame them, and this way of life, is not force, but wisdom," says Kotevska.

she says that beekeeping has Hatidze such a remarkable person.

Hatidze is very close to The Bees , by frequently no protection. It has not to be stung, The Bees seem to trust her.

Hatidze harvest Honey "Everything we have heard, of Hatidze refers to The Bees . She has to live with The Bees , and everything that you learned, you learned from them. "

The cash to do your say that wild bees was breeding something learned only have a few people in the region, How To . It was never the Main Source of income for The Villagers , but The Family pass it down through the generations.

Hatidze family, the skill to learn, A Generation is skipped - you learned it as a girl from her grandfather, rather than their parents.

you can be alone but not lonely"Hatidze acts with The Bees , As If they were her family and she takes care of them As If they were your children," says Kotevska. "And that, although her life is very hard, Hatidze't feel lonely. "

In a scene of the film, Hatidze her mother asks why she rejected offers of marriage that were brought for Hatidze. Nazife says that you father did not turn you down, but Hatidze the time.

Stefanov says that in the traditional communities in this part of The World , regardless of religion or ethnicity, "it is an unwritten rule that the last-born female child remains with the parents until their death".

"So, Hatidze fate was to stay and Take Care of their parents. "

But Hatidze the longing for your own family. In the film, she develops a special connection with one of the young Sam.

Hatidze share Honey with one of Sam's boys ", the love that tells you to hold for A Family of my own, which never came true, finally went to The Bees ", Kotevska.

"you will find happiness and companionship, in every living being around you. You will continue to find the happiness again and again, as long as she lives. "

images can speak louder than word Honey country is a film that in a distant land, where people live in a manner foreign to The West . But it still has connected with a global audience about The Protagonists , the language of the body, relationships and emotions.

Both the Sams and Hatidze family are ethnic Turks and speak Turkish dialect the whole movie.

In The Past , there were about 10 Turkish villages in the area, Stefanov says, but most of The Villagers left for Turkey after the second World War .

Today, over 78,000 ethnic Turks still live in the North of Macedonia, Making Up just under 4% of the country's population of 2. 1 million.

"Not to understand Turkish a problem during the filming, but we decided To Let them talk as they would, of course," says Kotevska. to edit

"When we came, we stayed stuck for a week or more completely. We spent to consider hours only, what to do with this material. At the end we came up with The Best possible solution and that is to edit on mute. This gave us The Power of the visual story we have made.

"This was The Most valuable lesson for us, as the authors of The Future of movies. We are now very trained to, the stories that are created, visually. "

Kotevska says, there were many other disadvantages, the work of the beginning of the rotation, but most of them ended up working out well.

"make you very creative, we thought of The Solutions , turned out pretty unique. "

bees and people are says similarHatidze, your bees are unique can be resilient and survive very high and very low temperature, in contrast to many other species. The film shows that to be true of the people in the region.

But the similarities between humans and bees, does not stop there.

What caught directors' interest early on, the observation Hatidze was life, and your relationship with your mother. Kotevska said, they were struck by how similar Hatidze a worker-bee was, and how her mother, The Queen bee was similar. In the film, Nazife The House never leaves, but her wisdom leads her daughter in time of crisis.

there is A conflict plays out between human neighbors also reflected by The Bees .

"Sam-The Family , The Other group of bees attack, the previous group of bees, the Hatidze and your family comes later. We enjoyed this comparison during the filming. "

Hatidze and her mother Nazife It is known that male and female bees have different roles to fill, but the film shows all do the same job.

Hussein, his wife and children, all of the rollers share the cattle. In one scene, one of the young sons is shown to help a cow give birth, while another boy milking tried with his father in the vicinity.

Kotevska and Stefanov to say that, like beekeeping, of all The Other tasks in this harsh environment have been carried out equally by men and women.

"Everyone has to do the same work in order to survive. This you see in our film - in both families, it makes no difference what the [gender] they are, they all do the same Things . "

Hatidze with members of the Sam family, including Hussein (right), And how the jobs in The Village Bekirlija, the making of the film was the work of Stefanov and Kotevska, who is one of only a handful of female Directors nominated for an Oscar this year.

Kotevska says that many people assume that you, as a woman, was The One , the closer to Hatidze, and Stefanov with The Boys from The Other family. In fact, The Other way round it was.

"It is important who we were as people, our personality, this was crucial. Gender should not be the topic of discussion. "

Honey country Directors Tamara Kotevska, and Ljubo Stefanov on an Oscar-week event live from the Neon lights not Northern Macedonia star after Hollywood, she will head there again in the spring and watch The Stars from her small stone hut.

bees, film, north macedonia, the oscars, conservation

Source of news: bbc.com