so what we just saw would not necessarily the film you had originally intended to
make correct first of all hi everyone you're very happy to see the full house and we will
start with of course with how we met in all this story we are a very small crew which
is usual for documentaries I would say we are only 5 people in the crew who did
this film and 4 of us were on in the actual village for 3 years of shooting and we were
working together on a previous documentary and that's how this story started when we realized
with the previous documentaries it was also a very big success it was another environmental
documentary in the region of Macedonia and we saw how well we function together so we started
doing the second subject which was supposed to be a short documentary about the environment
around River in the center of Macedonia and while doing the research which took a longer
time maybe 2 months we discovered the holes in the beehives in the rocks and we we were
very shocked to see this because it was obviously handmade and we started asking the locals around
who they belong to who made them and why and this is how we came to a teacher this is how we found
our protagonist so we can proudly say that the beasts brought us to her so what was her reaction
when you talked to her and started shooting and suggested hey we want to make a film about you
oh well her first reaction actually this is a first-time question like what is nobody ever
asked you before and they're like we've been asked everything and I did it all right I said what was
her reaction then well because at first we were thinking a lot when we found her also there was
her brothers and relatives who did the same so we made a lot of thinking about who should be
the protagonist and it didn't take a long before realizing that she's the one obviously because
she's the only one remaining in this village to take care of her mother because in the old
castle Bashi tribe that she belongs to it's a tradition that the last female takes care over
the parents and doesn't have a family of her own so the first reaction to her was probably a shock
and then she said that this is something she was thinking of a lot how how to find a way to tell
her story to the world so this is her wish in a way so she was very happy to participate in this
and they're very happy to to tell her story and hurl her life to the world actually the village
is quite a walk away I mean the civilization is there but what did she know about movies
like when you said documentary did she fully grasped what that meant she said that she was
dreaming that some TV journalist would someday came into the village and make something about
her and she she look she she doesn't she doesn't have electricity lives in seventeenth-century
and she doesn't have you know she doesn't make a difference between film and TV and so so day in
and day out over those three years what was life like for you guys because you you are clearly in
there in this really small space with them well we were filming in during those three years in
a session of three to four days because we had a very small terrorem vehicle Russian Aladdin
Eva and because there is no electricity no long way no road to there we were bringing supplies
of food and batteries for maximum four days of staying and we were sleeping in the tents in her
backyard to just agree but for me I think this is the only way how you make a real documentary
if you feel the life that these people are living if you become a part of their life so you're with
her for a long time and then this other family shows up what is your reaction when they show
up do you think oh my god what is this film different we were with her it was easy and we
started with her just filming it at first six months just her activities with the Beast and
relation with her mal and they appeared first after six months something like that and we we
needed some five or six months more to get close to them so it was difficult and we get get close
to them through the children not directly and but when we we establish the relation it was seize it
and and they they relaxed and they didn't care of the camera at all in the following two and a
half years two years maybe it becomes a totally different kind of film with a totally different
kind of energy so how are you guys rolling with that I would I would say for me the
moment when we decided to go with that family was like in matrix you to choose the ruined
red peel because it's like either it's a dead end or something completely new because before that
moment we really didn't know yet how we will structure this film because it was only about
a teacher and her mother bringing this family meant an actual real conflict that is happening
there but also a bunch of trouble because these people are just impossible to communicate with
them in the first meet the first meeting with them was with the little children were hiding
behind the village place for water I don't know like yeah and they were like hitting us which do
okay we were afraid of them on the beginning but but but their arrival creates a sort of
fascinating depiction of old ways versus new right and and what is the right way to do things I mean
it's a totally different kind of story with a different kind of message at that point right
because it seemed but we were they appeared she never gets stung they get stung over and over
again because they're so impatient and they're so disrespectful of the process it's visible in the
film you can feel her relation with with the piece and you to feel their relation with the basics so
please it's almost spiritual with her not almost it is definitely spiritual it's more impressive
that the bees didn't stung us for three years never only one of the cinematographers were but
she was working with the other families so it's their fault again that's amazing so I understand
the editing process took a while there was what 400 hours of footage and and I understand that
you didn't have it translated at first what was can you describe what that editing process was
like it is interesting that we don't understand Turkish so all these things with the dialogues
practically we didn't know what's going on there and we we we started we start first we made we
spent thousand three and a half months four months I don't remember in just watching the material the
whole material and then we started with editing on mute just the visual narrator during that period
for translators were translating the scenes with dialogues because this Turkish language is very
old our hike language which is difficult for today's Turkish speakers to understand some of
the words and and when we when we put the first version on the timeline then the the SRT files
were ready and we took them and it was very surprising because we we didn't change what we
what we put on the line but we were surprised of some of those strong sentences we heard like for
example in the winter when mother said is there will be spring something like that which are very
strong I've become a tree things that for us made it feel like we are watching a new film and that's
very pleasing and editing because it can become you know very boring seeing the same stuff again
they speak to the power of your imagery the just the beauty of the imagery that you guys captured
that it could tell a story that you could follow and get engaged in without understanding her well
because both of the families speak Macedonian too but it's not their first language so they
communicate with us Macedonian but not among each other so also it was a decision on us to tell them
like speak your own language or speak Macedonian so we can understand what we were doing and we
decided to leave them be who they really are to speak on their language for us this was the
biggest challenge to focus on visual and on body language which turned out very useful because
the film is really understandable even without the subtitles has she seen them has a teacher
see in this film yes we bring her in our first screening first in close screening after Sundance
in in Skopje there were two two screenings and she was there and two of the kids also
she enjoyed the screening really and after the screening there was a party and after the second
screening the band who made the music it's a very famous monument and they make a small gig in in
that venue and you know one moment she stepped on the stage grab the mic and start singing Wow
after that we took her in Switzerland first in what was the name of the faith - never
mind - really visions real and after that in Sarajevo now she's going to Turkey and she's
behaving like a star now she looks good as well she should I might add no really
she's inventing songs for every place she's going to she is so cute so if she's still
harvesting bees is she still in that village is this still her life it will always be her
life like this is her passion and this is her children so she's not abandoning them