Inside the beekeeper drama generating major buzz
How Hive, the Sundance hit about a Balkan war widow who starts her own business, is now gunning for Oscars glory
IN THE FIVE-DECADE history of the Sundance Film Festival, no film has won all three main awards (the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award). Until last year, that is, when Hive, a low-budget arthouse film about a war widow who starts her own business selling honey and ‘ajvar’
(a spicy Balkan spread) in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, swept the board. For Kosovan debut filmmaker Blerta Basholli, it was fairly stunning.
“We’re a small country,” says Basholli. “We don’t produce a lot of films. It’s really hard as an artist to make it out of here, so we really didn’t expect a lot. I’m usually the sceptical one. And then we got the prizes… it was really surreal and amazing. Most of all, of course, we were happy because it gave attention to the film.”
It’s an unlikely victory from humble beginnings that echoes the journey of the film’s story, which is based on real-life beekeeper Fahrije Hoti (played in the film by Yllka Gashi), a woman widowed by war who defies her highly traditional patriarchal community — where a woman even getting a driving licence is considered shocking to the men — to become a self-made entrepreneur.
Basholli first encountered Hoti’s story on the news — but her initial instinct was to make a comedy. “There was an era where Balkan films were satirical about very serious matters,” she explains. “But when I met Fahrije, the film became about her. I was like, ‘This is a really strong character sitting in front of me.’ So I thought I should portray that on screen and make it documentary-style — because it’s a real person. It’s a very empowering story.”
It’s also a story that’s earned global recognition since that Sundance hat-trick — and has now made the shortlist for Best International Film at this year’s Oscars. Basholli hopes to take the real Hoti with her to the awards show. “I would love to,” she says. “[Hoti] has been with us at festivals, she was with us in DC when we had an event with Dua Lipa and the president of Kosovo. I think she deserves to go to the ceremony.” An Academy Award, then, would be the sweetest win of all.