The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) congratulated Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska, and Atanas Georgiev for their multiple accomplishments at the Sundance Film Festival on their documentary film “Honeyland”. They received three major awards at the Festival, which included the documentary categories’ Grand Jury Prize, the Special Jury Prize – Impact for Change, and another Special Jury Award for Cinematography.
“Honeyland” follows the daily tasks and struggles of one of the last wild beekeepers, Hatidze Muratova, of the Macedonian countryside. She has a peaceful lifestyle surrounding the bees until the Hussein family moves into the abandoned village, beginning a time of disorder after the idea of capitalizing the bees comes to Hussein thinking of his family throughout the process.
With the number of awards this film has garnered, there is one that helps highlight the underlying message the directors and producer wanted to get across. Through the Impact for Change award, the message was in part saving the bees but was also a cry to tackle the underlying need for environmental policy to fix the current pollution issue within Macedonia. Skopje and Tetovo are the most polluted cities within Macedonia and Europe according to the 2019 Pollution Index and there are currently no reforms or movement to change it. UMD applauds “Honeyland” due to its move to ignite conversations on the environmental policies the governing body of Macedonia has ignored.