Honeyland

Documentary-makers Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska were scouting locations when they came across 50-something honey hunter Hatidze Muratova in a remote North Macedonian village. Over the next three years, they would shoot hundreds of hours of film to produce a compelling study of simplicity, poverty and opportunistic capitalism that would receive two Oscar nominations. When not scrambling along mountain ledges to tend to her hives, Hatidze cares for her half-blind mother, Nazife. But their peaceful existence is shattered when fellow Turk Hussein Sam moves into a vacant property with his wife and seven children and proceeds to muscle in on Hatidze's livelihood. Refusing to cast judgement, the directors record the ensuing events with a discretion that examines human nature against the rugged beauty of an implacable landscape. The sequences bathed in golden sunlight are exquisite and there's a gentle poignancy in Hatidze's relationship with her neighbours' younger children. But, be warned, some of the lessons learned are heartbreakingly harsh.