Also showing:
SATURDAY, OCT 28 | 3:45 PM | BB
Set in Basque country, this is a most wonderful, sensitive, delicate film, portraying in a complex way relationships among a multigenerational extended family. 20,000 Species of Bees gives each of the (mainly) women in the family enough screen time for us to get to know them. One of the young ones is an 8-year-old male by birth, girl by self-identification. But the film doesn’t assert itself as an issue drama — in large part because, as Solaguren presents the protagonist’s gradual steps toward self-realization, her film doesn’t see much of a problem to begin with. Great Aunt Lourde, a solitary bee-keeper, tells the child that there are 20,000 species of bees – all of them good. The performances are uniformly complex and believable. This is a remarkable, tender fiction feature debut for the director and a fascinating portrait of a diverse group of women. ~ OY