Honey (2010 film)

In the remote and undeveloped eastern Black Sea region, a six-year-old boy (Yusuf) wanders through the woods searching for his lost father, trying to make sense of his life. There is little dialogue or music in the film. The environment is a recurring theme. ==Cast==

• Erdal Beşikçioğlu as Yakup • Tülin Özen as Zehra • Alev Uçarer • Bora Altaş as Yusuf • Ayşe Altay ==Production==

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 shot in Çamlıhemşin district in Rize Province in northeastern Turkey, and was jointly produced by Turkey's Kaplan Film Production and Germany's Heimatfilm, and shot in the mountains of Turkey. ==Reception==

Critical response The film received positive reviews from critics. Honey has an approval rating of 85% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". 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." Accolades Honey beat 19 other films from around the world to win the Golden Bear award. Kaplanoğlu reacted by recalling an encounter with a bear while filming, "The bear is now back." 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". It was nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography at the 23rd European Film Awards. ==See also==