Honey (Bal)
Nomination Details
Nomination Detail
Winner, Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO, 2010
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 his 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. The strong bond that he has with his father cannot protect Yusuf from becoming an outsider during his first year of school. To the distress of his pretty young mother, Zehra, his anxieties escalate when his father must travel to a faraway forest on a risky mission. When his father does not return, Yusuf summons all of his courage and goes deep into the forest to search for him.
Born in 1963, Semih Kaplanoğlu is one of the most acclaimed writer/director/producers of contemporary filmmaking in Turkey. With his third feature film Egg, which premiered at Cannes in 2008, he received Best Director awards at Fajr and Valdivia International Film Festivals and the World Film Festival of Bangkok. The film received 30 awards in total including Turkey’s Golden Orange and Golden Tulip awards from the Antalya and Istanbul International Film Festival respectively. His feature film Milk premiered at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival and went on to win the FIPRESCI prize at the Istanbul International Film Festival. Honey is the third part of the Yusef Trilogy (after Egg and Milk), which traces the origins of the soul. Earlier in 2010, Bal (Honey) was awarded the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear for Best Film. As with his previous films, Semih Kaplanoğlu works without the use of music in Bal (Honey). He has also written many published articles on plastic arts and cinema.
Trailer
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