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Northern Macedonian Office
Nominated for two Oscars, “Honeyland” has traced tensions between a hermit beekeeper and his messy neighbors. Now, filmmakers are suffering from getting to the bottom of their subjects.
By Patrick Kingsley
BEKIRLIJA, Northern Macedonia – When the manufacturer and two administrators of “Honeyland” first returned to the set of their documentary in Northern Macedonia since winning two Oscar nominations in February, the basics had changed.
The film chronicles the tensions between Hatidze Muratova, a local beekeeper and a farmer in the remote village of Bekirlija. Trapped between two rocky hills and surrounded by imperial eagles, the village is still available only in off-road vehicles, via a steep, ornate track. Most of the houses were still in ruins, slowly sliding into the undergrowth.
And Hatidze Muratova, one of the last inhabitants of the hamlet and protagonist of “Honeyland”, continues to wait for the filmmakers with a smile and a strong coffee.
But Muratova’s narrow, dark living room, the film’s most moving scene, no longer felt inhabited.
“Now this position and those other people are different,” said a melancholy Ljubomir Stefanov, one of the film’s two co-directors, sitting in Ms. Muratova’s garden. “And I can feel that she feels that this is not her only home.”
This is largely due to Mr. Stefanov and his fellow filmmakers. Thanks to the awards won through the film, he and his colleagues had discovered him a new house in Dorfulija, a larger and richer town an hour’s drive away. Now divide your time between the two villages.
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