HONEY /PRESS

21.02.2010
Bears Love Honey
Michael Althen - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Golden Bear for "Bal" at the Berlinale
"Bears Love Honey"

The Berlin International Film Festival ultimately managed to come up with at least one plausible winner, the Turkish-German co-production Bal (Honey) from director Semih Kaplanoglu. Michael Althen reports on a worthy winner at a not-so-worthy festival.

Semih Kaplanoglu's film uses lyrical images to show the world of a small boy, a childhood in the forests and mountains of Anatolia that is soon shattered by one of life's tough realities: the death of his father | Happily clutching the "Golden Bear" in his hand, director Semih Kaplanoglu explained that once, while filming the story of a beekeeper in north-western Turkey, a bear turned up on set, hoping to feast on the honey in the beehives, only to think better of it and make a quick getaway when he caught sight of the film crew. Now, he said, the bear was back in the form of the top award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film's German producer then added, as if by way of explanation, "Bears love honey."

In the run-up to the festival, there was much speculation about how the unpredictability of the jury president, Werner Herzog, would influence the awards. At the end of the day, however, he had little opportunity to make any sensational choices.

The fact that the awards for best male actor and camera work went to the Russians is justifiable, as are the two awards presented to the Romanians; Koji Wakamatsu's Caterpillar at least won one gong (for best actress); and whether the director's award for Polanski was supposed to be in some way symbolic, the jury declined to say. Maybe the members of the jury were just relieved that someone went ahead and told a straightforward story without overtaxing the audience.

Strange and foreign world in north-eastern Turkey

In short, the worst aberrations were avoided and at least one plausible winner was found in Bal, a film that manages to spirit viewers away and bring them on a journey of discovery to a strange and foreign world in a village in the forests of north-eastern Turkey, where a mysterious affliction is killing off bees and a small boy is struggling to learn how to read.

It has been 46 years since Berlin's Golden Bear has gone to a film from Turkey: Semih Kaplanoglu's Honey, tells the story of a childhood in Anatolia | Semih Kaplanoglu's film is the final part of a trilogy that began with Egg, continued with Milk, which showed recently at German cinemas, and is now rounded off with Honey.

The hero is always Yusuf, who is old in the first film and a child in the last one, but is not necessarily one and the same person. In Honey, he is eight years old. The film's strength stems from the fact that it focuses on how difficult it is for the child to get to grips with the world.

He almost always talks to his father about plants and animals in a whisper; his mother remains a distant figure; his schoolmates consider him a loner; and it seems as if his silent communication with nature works best of all.

Bal dwells on the image of the world as an eternal mystery, which it seeks to visualise in long shots. It is exactly this kind of challenge that adds some excitement to a competition. Or, to put it another way, it was one of the few films that actually deserved to be in this competition in the first place.