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HIVE
Director: Blerta Basholli Cast: Yllka Gashi, Çun Lajçi, Aurita Agushi, Kumrije Hoxha, Adriana Matoshi, Molikë Maxhuni, Blerta Ismaili, Kaona Sylejmani, Mal Noah Safqiu, Xhejlane Terbunja MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:24 Release Date: 11/5/21; 11/12/21 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 4, 2021 The small town in Hive exists like a place out of time. That's the way it likely has been for these people, and it certainly is the way things are now. The specific time of this story is some years after the Kosovo War. Men, women, and children in this country were captured by Serbian forces and disappeared. Since then, people have been waiting for their husbands, wives, parents, and children to return, but they almost certainly never will. That's the only back story Blerta Basholli provides for this story. It's also the only background we need to know. This is a town that has existed with equal parts hope and grief for so long that, in the bigger picture, neither of those feelings seems possible. Everything is at a standstill. The specific story revolves around Fharije (Yllka Gashi), a character based on a real woman whose husband was among those disappeared. On a farm outside of town, she lives with her two children and strictly traditional father-in-law Haxhiu (Çun Lajçi), where the family keeps bees to sell honey at the local market. Fharije is also in a group of other likely widows, who receive a regular stipend for their status. The money has diminished recently. She has an idea: to start a business with these women, making and selling ajvar (a pepper-based condiment) at a city grocery store. The local men—and some of the women—see Fharije's enterprising ways as a betrayal of her gender and supposed place in society. They respond with increasing hostility. That's the extent of the plot, because the story here is more focused on Fharije's daily struggles with her family, with financial woes, with the specifics of starting and running a business, and with the constant fight of asserting herself, her wants, and her needs against a culture that would rather she remain a dutiful wife, mother, and daughter-in-law. Gashi's performance embodies the silent mourning and rising resentment, torn between too many conflicting emotions, like so many in this place, to actually process. The film is blunt about the devastation of uncertainty and the misogyny intrinsic in this place. Hive is also quietly, unaffectedly inspiring in its simple gestures (a group of women dancing together to celebrate an accomplishment), as well as its broader implications about how change comes about—and mournful about the ways it doesn't. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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