The Beekeeper (1986)

A bee keeper, Spiros, travels from the north to the south of Greece with his bees to meet the spring.

Director:

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Writers:

Theodoros Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra

Stars:

Marcello Mastroianni, Nadia Mourouzi, Serge Reggiani

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Marcello Mastroianni	...	Spyros
Nadia Mourouzi	...	The Girl
Serge Reggiani	...	Sick Man
Jenny Roussea	...	Spyros' Wife
Dinos Iliopoulos	...	Spyros' Friend
Vasia Panagopoulou
Iakovos Panotas	...	Solder / The Girl / Side Boyfriend
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stamatis Gardelis
Mihalis Giannatos
Karyofyllia Karabeti
Konstandinos Konstandopoulos	...	(as Kostas Konstadopoulos)
Nikos Kouros
Christoforos Nezer
Stratos Pahis
Dimitris Poulikakos

Storyline

Spiros retires as a schoolteacher, his daughter is married, and he starts his annual journey with his bees to get honey from different areas. In his truck he finds a young girl who has just been abandoned and has no roots. Spiros lets her follow for a day. Seeing her difficulty in getting further hitch-hiking, he takes her back. They will meet and part several times. Later she will say that Spiros is the only one who has ever been kind to her. But his emotions are so restrained that he cannot show anything until a volcanic eruption breaks through. He does not seek serious contact until the eruption makes him drive the car right through the glass wall of the café in which the girl is sitting. She immediately follows him. But after this criminal event they can no longer live at hotels. From the beginning she was willing to sleep with him. But when he finally kisses her, her justified reaction is to repeat "Not in this way!" A friend had a shut down cinema where they could sleep. ...

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Plot Keywords:

bee | cinema | road movie | hitchhiker | suicide | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The Italian version on DVD is inexplicably shorter than 18 minutes. The scene with her, naked, trying to make love to him in the cinema has been completely eliminated.

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Connections

Referenced in A Beekeeper Dies - The Other Tale (1986)

User Reviews

The experience of Isolation

A middle aged teacher retires from his career, dedicates himself to his hobby, and embarks on a journey through Greece with his colony of bees in his lorry. Along the way he picks up a young woman hitch hiker, and a relationship develops between them that explores the depths of personal loneliness and and alienation.

Both Spiros and his young passenger have lost their perspective of the future - he is living in nostalgic reminiscence of the past, while the young girl's life is one of instant gratification, she seems to be aware of neither past nor future. Their inherent inner isolation expresses itself in a series of futile, almost savagely physical attempts at forming real contact with each other, that leaves the viewer with a harrowing picture of disturbed, painful existence.

This is a slow, carefully composed film, a sequence of memorable images, some visually beautiful, others showing the gritty harshness of life. There is a constant shifting between dreams and realities that leaves what actually happens shrouded in doubt, and a moody atmosphere of nostalgia that pervades the whole film.

An exceptional film that should not be missed by patient and observant people interested in the exploration of human feelings.

Details

Country:

Greece France Italy

Language:

Greek French

Release Date:

29 April 1987 (France)

Also Known As:

El apicultor

Filming Locations:

Ioannina, Greece

Company Credits

Production Co:

Greek Film Center, Greek Television ET-1, Theo Angelopoulos Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1