Hive
A brutal and gripping story of a Kosovan woman trying to survive the loss of her husband, and start a business in a village where women aren’t typically allowed to work.
Fahrije’s (YIlka Gashi) husband has been missing since the war in Kosovo. She is struggling to not only deal with the loss of her husband, particularly when his father won’t believe he has been killed, but also to provide for her two children. She lives in a poor village, where women don’t / aren’t allowed to work, and her attempts to do so bring the ire of the village upon her. But there are also many widows in this town from that war. Fahrije sets up a small business to provide for her children, making pickled vegetables for a supermarket in a larger nearby town, but the patriarchal society of her own village pushes back against her. As challenge after challenge is thrown in her way, she needs to find the strength within herself to keep fighting, and provide a safe legacy for her children.
Hive is directed by Blerta Basholli, and is an intimate, shocking and engaging film whose true life origins make it all the moreso. While the poster may well have you thinking that you’re going to watch a beekeeper documentary, this is a much more poignant and engrossing piece about the indomitable strength of Fahrije as she battles through the patriarchal society she lives in to set up a business. She is shunned, abused and sexually assaulted, all while trying to scrape together the funding to start a project that can provide for her and her family.
Even more heart wrenching is how she has to deal with her father in law, who is both supportive of his daughter and law, and completely opposed to anything that intimates that his son may not come home. While the business storyline is strong, and brutally enlightening, it’s this coming to terms with death, and the different ways in which grief manifest, that truly give heart to the film.
Gashi is absolutely fantastic in the lead role. She embodies both the strong, immutable woman and the grieving wife. It’s a terrific performance that anchors the film, particularly for international audiences.
The rest of the cast works well, but there is little that stands out above Gashi’s lead performance. Visually, the piece is very dour, grim and gritty, but it is impeccably shot and the framing and cinematography if gorgeous; cinematographer Alex Bloom really utilizing the small, winding spaces to frame people in slivers of light, frames of doorways, or curtains of showers.
In the end, Hive is a story about a woman who puts aside the buzzing and stinging bees of her patriarchal community, and continues to make something beautiful out of it. Similarly, Blerta Basholli creates something riveting out of a tragic true story, fighting through the noise of death, grief and longing to find an inspiring tale of one woman’s fight to protect herself and her family in the midst of a tragedy..
