20,000 Species Of Bees Review Lovely, Heartfelt Spanish Trans Drama
There is something transformative about summer vacation. Free from the constraints and expectations of school, these long, quiet weeks promise the rediscovery of previously unimaginable freedoms. Made on the spot and without historical baggage, a blank list of holiday friends gives you the chance to start over. It is no coincidence that so many adult films are set against the dark backdrop of the endless summer of childhood. For some children, this sense of freedom brings a lot of stress and fear. Basque director Estíbaliz Uresola combines and uses Solagure's confident feature debut, 20,000 Bees , Celine Sciamma's Tomboy , and Carla Simone's Summer 1993 ( both closely related to her for different reasons). spreads the story of a child struggling to find his place in a world that doesn't know what to do with him.
The little girl at the center of this beautiful and heartfelt drama is an eight-year-old girl (a remarkable breakthrough for 2023 Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Sofia Otero) who spent the entire summer with her mother. In the Basque Country, families say what they know to be true. that she is a woman and that family and friends who call her a man are making a mistake. It is not an easy process. Summer can be a humiliating time for a body-conscious child, with expectations of bathing suits and bare skin. In the dense village community, everyone knows your name. a constant, painful reminder when that name no longer fits who you are. She rejects her birth name Aitor and the nickname Coco, regardless of gender, and finally chooses Lucia.
Uresola's directorial approach is characterized by charming subtlety and emotional sharpness. Handheld cameras capture the smallest details: the flash of a smile that lights up Lucia's face when she receives a girlish compliment; the cloud covering her expression when the grandmother insisted that she was her grandson and not her grandson. Meanwhile, Lucia's mother Anne (Patricia Lopez Arnaiz) struggles with her identity. As a talented sculptor, she is constantly overshadowed by her late father whose impressive work and influence dominates the studio, where Anna tries to carve out a place for herself in the art world. As in L' immensità , Emmanuelle Criallese's semi-autobiographical portrait of her transgender childhood, it is a mother who tries to provide her son with the emotional isolation and support he needs to be himself, who is already broken marriage strain.
Competent, understated and refreshingly light, it's a natural, documentary approach to filmmaking that has often been compared to the theater of the Darden brothers. But actually it's more like the fresh, vital energy of Simon's work, with a touch of earthy magic and ritualistic superstition that permeates Alice Rohrwacher's films, especially The Miracles , which has a symbolic connection to bees.
The bees and the beekeeper, Lucia's great-aunt Lourdes (Ane Gabarain) play a decisive role in Lucia's journey. The reserved, headstrong little girl we first meet, Lucia thrives around adults who listen without judgment or correction when she talks about herself as a girl. Not everyone takes it that way. Lucia's grandmother, Lita (Itziar Lazkano), thinks the child is inappropriate and too pampered, which she lists in one scene along with her many criticisms of her daughter, big and loud. which ends half his life - The family's healed discontents come together openly.
And Lucia's grandmother probably wouldn't be the only one who cringed at the idea of an eight-year-old questioning her gender identity. It's the hottest topic of all time and a bold choice for a debut film. But with this gentle, sensitive nature, Uresola interrupts a conversation that usually boils down to shouting and softens it with a whisper. It seems that you feel more yourself.
