--- title: "Honeyland" year: 2019 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/honeyland" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 17 published: "2026-09-17T05:36:56.784778+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T05:37:05.128883+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Honeyland (2019) Directed by Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska · 1h 29m · Documentary **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 81 from 17 reviews *In a sentence:* Half for the bees, half for the beekeeper; the neighbours arrive and cannot count to half > Kotevska and Stefanov’s documentary about a lone beekeeper in the Macedonian hills is patient, plainly shot and quietly furious. It is cut to play like a drama and hides the seams too well, but the woman at its centre is worth every minute. ## Synopsis In an empty village in the hills of North Macedonia, Hatidzhe Muratova keeps wild bees in the crevices of a cliff and the stone walls of ruined houses, taking half the honey and leaving half for the hive. She lives with her mother, Nazife Muratova, who is bedridden and nearly blind, in a house without electricity, and takes the bus to Skopje to sell her honey by the jar. Then Hussein Sam and Ljutvie Sam arrive next door with a caravan, a herd of cattle and a large family of children. Hussein wants money, sees what the bees bring in, and decides to keep some of his own. Hatidzhe teaches the children her rule and hopes their father has heard it. ## Review Hatidzhe Muratova keeps bees in an empty village in the hills of North Macedonia. She lifts the honeycomb out of a crack in a cliff with her bare hands, takes half and leaves half, and tells the bees so out loud. At home, in a stone house with no electricity, she looks after her mother, Nazife Muratova, who is bedridden and nearly blind. Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov filmed the two of them without narration, interviews or captions, and then a family arrived next door, and their film acquired a plot. It is a fine film, and we recommend it with one reservation about how that plot was made. Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma shot it, and the opening is theirs: a small figure in a yellow headscarf crossing a ridge, then edging along a ledge to a hive set into the rock, the valley falling away beneath her. They stay close to Hatidzhe and closer to the bees, which crawl over her wrists and face and never seem to sting her. Indoors there is a single lamp, and Daut and Ljuma let it do the work, so the house is a circle of orange with the dark pressing in at the edges and Nazife’s face turned towards the light. Nothing is lit for the camera. When the sun goes, the picture goes with it. Hatidzhe is a marvellous subject, and she knows it. She takes the bus to Skopje with jars of honey, argues the price up at a market stall, and spends some of the money on chestnut hair dye. She sings. She talks to her mother about the men who once came calling and were sent away, and asks, not quite as a joke, whether it might have gone differently. That conversation moved us more than we expected, because she puts the question so lightly, and Nazife answers it so flatly, and the film simply sits there with the two of them and the lamp. Nobody prompts anyone. We had the sense of eavesdropping on people who had long since forgotten the camera. The neighbours are Hussein Sam and Ljutvie Sam, who arrive with a caravan, a herd of cattle and more children than the village has seen in years. Kotevska and Stefanov do not make them villains, and this is the film’s best decision. Hussein has mouths to feed and a buyer leaning on him for honey, and he takes up bees because his neighbour is doing well out of them. Hatidzhe teaches the children, scolds the parents and is plainly glad of the company. We liked the Sams and we dreaded them, both at once, and that is not a comfortable way to watch a film. What happens when Hussein starts to take more than half is the second half, and we will not describe it. Our reservation is about the shape. Atanas Georgiev edited the footage into something with a first act, a rising middle and a last reel, and he has done it so cleanly that you could mistake it for a scripted drama with amateur actors. That is a compliment to his cutting and a problem for the film. We have no idea how long the cameras were there, how many seasons pass, or what the crew did when a child was crying next to an open hive. Nobody is asked anything, so nothing is explained, and the Sams’ side of the ledger, what they owe and to whom, is glimpsed rather than shown. Once or twice we caught ourselves wondering what had been cut to make the story this tidy, and a documentary should not make you wonder that. Foltin’s music arrives sparingly, mostly late, and it is the one place where the film tells you what to feel. Set against the run of observational documentaries that follow one person through a hard year, this is among the sharpest, because it has a villain of sorts and refuses to treat him as one. It is also short: 89 minutes, certificate 12A, and hardly a wasted shot. Watch it with the lights off and the phone in another room. It is quiet enough that any noise you make will feel like an intrusion. *Fi1m score 82, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (17) - **Film Comment** (90/100, inferred): The review presents Honeyland as an exemplary work of direct cinema and a moving ecological parable contrasting sustainable beekeeping with reckless exploitation. It singles out the rapturously beautiful images captured under difficult conditions for praise. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/the-truth-hurts/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Sheri Linden (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's intimate portrayal of a traditional beekeeper's life and its themes of tradition, loneliness, and human-nature relationship, noting its universal resonance in an age of environmental crises. It highlights the exceptional access and vérité style as strengths, while pointing to the conflict with new neighbors as a key dramatic element. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/honeyland-review-1177112/) - **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the documentary a gorgeous, closely observed character study that plays like a thoughtful indie drama. It is praised for its intimate storytelling, stunning cinematography, and sensitive portrayal of a vanishing way of life through the expressive face and experiences of its central subject. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/honeyland/) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (85/100, inferred): The review presents the film as a bitter and beautiful Sundance-winning documentary that focuses on a single beekeeper as though our collective future hinges on her hives, emphasizing environmental balance and the protagonist's central role. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/honeyland-review-macedonia-beekeeper-documentary-1202054212/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (85/100, inferred): The film is a graceful evocation of interspecies coexistence that becomes a harrowing portrait of environmental and ethical imbalance when neighbors disrupt sustainable beekeeping practices. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-07-25/honeyland-review-documentary-beekeeper) - **RogerEbert.com**, Monica Castillo (85/100, inferred): The film meditates on the balance between humans and nature through the story of a solitary beekeeper whose world is disrupted by new neighbors who ignore her sustainable methods. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/honeyland-2019) - **The Guardian** (85/100, inferred): The critic praises this immersive documentary about a traditional beekeeper in North Macedonia whose sustainable practices are disrupted by disruptive new neighbors, turning it into a parable on resource exploitation. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/11/honeyland-review-beekeeping-bees-north-macedonia-documentary) - **The AV Club**, Charles Bramesco (B+): The critic sees the film as couching an apocalyptic warning in a beekeeping documentary, praising the tender portrait of Hatidze while highlighting the conflict with neighbors as a metaphor for resource depletion and environmental issues. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/honeyland-couches-an-apocalyptic-warning-in-a-beekeepin-1836624795) - **Little White Lies**, Lillian Crawford (3/4/3): The critic finds it a meditative documentary worth some of its buzz. It offers an artful study of culture, poverty and ecology focused on an unlikely Macedonian beekeeper. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/honeyland) - **Slant Magazine**, Keith Watson (80/100, inferred): The review praises the intimate, patient portrait of the beekeeper's disappearing way of life, highlighting her sustainable approach contrasted with neighbors' exploitation, and its reminder of better ways to interact with the planet. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/honeyland-review/) - **Time Out**, Alice Savile (4/5): This is a mesmerising documentary that provides a stinging reminder to respect nature. The filmmakers have distilled raw footage into an elemental struggle between ancient tradition and greed, with incredible observational footage of the central beekeeper. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/honeyland) - **Variety**, Guy Lodge (80/100, inferred): Macedonian filmmakers deliver a visually poetic observational debut that accrues subtle power as an environmental allegory from the clash between a lone beekeeper's sustainable methods and newcomers' greedier approach. [Read](https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/honeyland-review-1203124547/) - **The Times**, Ed Potton (★★★★☆): The patient documentary meditates on rural hardship and rhythms before becoming an intimate, quietly heartbreaking portrait of a beekeeper whose way of life is threatened by unruly neighbors. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/honeyland-review-quietly-heartbreaking-meditation-on-rural-life-zk0rxcpx9) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (60/100, inferred): The documentary constructs a gripping dramatic narrative around a beekeeper threatened by neighbors but frustrates by eliding factual context and molding reality into tidy cinematic forms. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/honeyland-reviewed-a-gripping-frustrating-documentary-about-a-beekeepers-fragile-isolation) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The directors observe the life of a Macedonian beekeeper with patience and without sentimentality, allowing humanism to emerge in both joyful and painful moments. The arrival of a neighboring family introduces real-world tensions around economics and tradition that the film captures with ambivalence. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/honeyland-2019-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **The Skinny**, Katie Goh (★★★★): Honeyland is hailed as one of the year’s strongest documentaries for its surprising ability to draw viewers in through fly-on-the-wall observation of tradition versus modernity. The critic singles out the sweeping honey-coloured fields, intimate interiors and gorgeous close-ups of the bees for praise. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/honeyland) - **The Playlist**, Gary Garrison (75/100, inferred): The film is a quiet, passive portrait of a disappearing way of life centered on a beekeeper and her mother, which becomes mesmerizing once its languid pace is embraced. The arrival of a nomadic family adds conflict and humanizes all parties involved in a way that avoids easy villains. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/honeyland-sundance-review-20190209/) ## Details - **Director:** Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska - **Director:** Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska - **Writer:** Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov - **Cinematography:** Fejmi Daut, Samir Ljuma - **Editor:** Atanas Georgiev - **Music:** Foltin - **Producer:** Atanas Georgiev, Ljubomir Stefanov - **Cast:** Hatidzhe Muratova as Self; Nazife Muratova as Self; Hussein Sam as Self; Ljutvie Sam as Self - **Runtime:** 1h 29m - **Release (the US):** 26 July 2019 - **Genres:** Documentary - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27ORUHlp6E ## Where to watch in the US - Tubi: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, CA, DE, DK, ES, FI, GB, IE, JP, NL, NO, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - International Submission to the Academy Awards 2020: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) - European Film Award for Best Documentary 2019: European Film Award for Best Documentary (nominated) - Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary 2019: Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary (won) - Sundance World Cinema Special Jury Prize Documentary 2019: Sundance World Cinema Special Jury Prize Documentary (won) ## If you liked this - *Gunda* (2020): A sow and her piglets, no words, and more feeling than most scripted films manage. - *Le Quattro Volte* (2010): A Calabrian goatherd, a tree and a kiln, filmed with the same patience and less plot. - *The Gleaners and I* (2000): Agnès Varda on people who live off what others leave behind, warm and unsentimental. - *Sweetgrass* (2009): Montana sheepherders on a last drive through the mountains, swearing at the animals throughout. - *Grey Gardens* (1975), Fi1m 86: Another mother and daughter in a crumbling house, argued over ever since it was released. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/grey-gardens.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/honeyland