Synopsis

Yusuf is an only child who lives with his parents in an isolated mountain area. For the young boy, the surrounding forest becomes a place of mystery and adventure when accompanying his father on the job.

Yusuf watches in admiration as his beekeeper father Yakup hangs specially-made hives at the top of the tallest trees. With the skill of a tightrope acrobat, he must often suspend dangerously from the uppermost branches to gather honey.



The strong bond that he has with his father cannot protect Yusuf from becoming an outsider during his first year of school. Yusuf's stutter shames him in front of his classmates during oral reading assignments. Yusuf's anxieties escalate when his father must travel to a faraway forest on a risky mission.

His father gone, Yusuf slips into silence to the distress of his pretty young mother Zehra. Days pass and Yakup still does not return. Yusuf sees his mother becoming sadder everyday. Yusuf summons all of his courage and goes deep into the forest to search for his father. A journey into the unknown...

Cast:  Erdal Besikçioglu, Tülin Özen, Alev Uçarer, Bora Altas


Critical reception

Katja Nicodemus (Die Zeit) praised the film as an "existential narrative about the world view of a child, about loss and mourning". She picks out the calm rhythm and the landscape photography: "In Bal, you believe you can smell the rain drizzling on the boy on his way to school".

Detlef Kuhlbrodt (Die Tageszeitung) spoke of Kaplanoğlu's "meditative" film, while Christina Tilmann (Tagesspiegel) described it as "one of the most beautiful and most intimate films of this festival", made from unspectacular ingredients "[…] a film that lets the viewer dream.

It feels like wind, like oxygen, air that you want to keep with you for as long as you can. Or like the Sun shining in the forest through marvelously tower-high trees.

Background

Honey is the last installment of Kaplanoğlu's autobiographical "Yusuf Trilogy", named after the central character, preceded by Egg (Yumurta, 2007) and Milk (Süt, 2008). Egg was screened at Cannes, Milk at Venice. The trilogy runs in reverse chronological order, and Honey explores Yusuf's early childhood.

The film was jointly produced by Turkey's Kaplan Film Production and Germany's Heimatfilm, and shot in the mountains of Turkey.

The scriptwriting was supported by a 25,000 Turkish lira grant (approx. €12,000 or $16,500) from Script Development Fund of the Antalya Eurasia Film Festival, while the production was supported by funding from the Council of Europe Eurimages fund, the North Rhine Westphalia Film Foundation and the television stations ZDF and Arte

Golden Bear award

Bal beat 19 other films from around the world to win the Golden Bear award. Its win was seen as a "surprise" by some. Kaplanoğlu reacted by recalling an encounter with a bear while filming, “The bear is now back.”[18] At a press conference the director said: "In the name of Turkish Films, this is a very meaningful prize. It's a help to making better films".

The film is scheduled to go on general release across Turkey on 12 March 2010.