GREY BEES
UKRAINE
Director: Dmytro Moiseiev
Cast: Viktor Zdanov, Volodymyr Yamnenko
Genre: Drama
100 minutes: Ukrainian with English subtitles: 2024
Rating: 16 LV
Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in the no-man’s-land between loyalist and separatist forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Sergiich and Pashka are former miners, but the mine has long stopped working. They are the last two remaining inhabitants, for better or worse dependent on each other. Sergiich the beekeeper is Ukrainian, Pashka is Russian. Both are grumpy. Circumstances have brought them together in a stubborn and sometimes adversarial companionship. This fragile co-existence is disrupted by the arrival of a Russian sniper in the village….
Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Andrey Kurkov, and set in the weeks before Russia’s invasion, Grey Bees is a powerful psychological drama about loneliness, powerlessness and uncertainty in wartime, and an important counterpoint to a world where war stories often overshadow human experiences. In July Grey Bees won the top feature film prize at the Odesa International Film Festival, this year held in Kyiv instead of Odesa due to safety concerns.
Grey Bees is a strong testament to the human connection trumping our differences in moments of need, and a beautiful humanistic film that is a beacon of hope in a time filled with suffering.
International cinephile society
A sage and laconic portrait of a solitary beekeeper with an evolving political consciousness in the “grey zone” of Donetsk.
Film verdict
An adroit, tidy piece of storytelling, abounding in subtle ironies.
David Katz, Cineuropa
A gentle story of survival in a war-scarred land.
Kirkus
“I can’t go, this is my home!” – Sergiich
Nil Birinci, Kinoavantegarde