20,000 Species of Bees [2023]

 A temporary escape by a city-dwelling family to the countryside during the summer holidays is never just that in cinema, and Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s sublime and exquisitely textured debut feature used this framework with nuance and restraint for a richly realized exploration of a kid’s complex tussle with gender identity, alongside the family members’ chaotic reconciliations with it. At one point, the kid’s rugged yet perceptive beekeeper grand-aunt (Ane Gabarain) remarks, to assuage emotional turmoil, that there are 20,000 species of bees and all of them are good; this observation articulated the film’s emphatic advocacy for plurality, diversity and acceptance, conveyed predominantly through women’s gazes and shaped by the director’s extensive interactions with an association of the families of transgender minors. An eight-year-old’s turbulent journey from Aitor, i.e. biological male, via the ambiguous Cocó, to Lucía, thus ultimately establishing her self-expression, unfolded in an absorbingly sunny village in the Basque County, amidst her messy extended family comprising of her loving but harried mother Ane (Patricia López Arnaiz) – desperate to convert her passion for sculpting into full-time vocation, while struggling to come out of the shadows of her late father’s problematic legacy –, grandmother (Itziar Lazkano) with whom Ane has a strained relationship, siblings, aunts, cousins, and the afore-mentioned grand-aunt. Suffused with intimacy and fervid undercurrents, the film was particularly noteworthy for its flurry of moments despite its unhurried pacing, lyrical palette, and fine performances by the adults in the cast led by a captivating Arnaiz. But what superseded everything was Sofía Otero’s extraordinary turn as the vulnerable, conflicted and stubborn trans-girl, for which she – at the age of nine – became the youngest recipient of the Silver Bear at Berlinale.

p.s. Watched it at the 2024 Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES)

Director: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren

Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Coming-of-Age

Language: Spanish/Basque

Country: Spain