More Than Honey
Director: Markus Imhoof
Rating: 4/5
There have already been some wonderful documentary films in 2013 - it really has been quite a vintage year - but now More Than Honey is set to continue that fine trend.
Markus Imhoof returns to the director's chair for the first time since Flammen im Paradies back in 1997, and his first documentary movie for over twenty years.
Over the past fifteen years, numerous colonies of bees have been decimated throughout the world. The causes of this disaster haven't yet been established. Depending on the regions of the world concerned, between 50% and 90% of the bees have disappeared.
This epidemic, of colossal violence and breadth, is spreading from beehive to beehive all over the planet. Everywhere, the same scenario is repeated: billions of bees leave their hives, never to return. No bodies are found in the immediate surroundings. No visible predators.
More Than Honey takes us into the fascinating world of bees and looks at the relationship that mankind's has with these creatures.
Where have all the bees gone? Is a question that we are hearing more and more, and this is not the first time a movie has tried to look at this issue.
But More Than Honey makes the bee decline more important that it has ever been before in this absolutely stunning movie.
What is so fantastic about Imhoof's movie is the visuals. With his close-up photography we see this creatures in a way that we have never seen them before on the big screen.
This movie peels back some of the mystery about this creature in an informative and totally beautiful way; seriously this has to be the most sunning looking documentary that I have had the pleasure of seeing for some time.
Imhoof must be applauded for the time that he has taken to really capture these wonderful creatures; it is truly fascinating.
Perhaps we are no closer to finding out why they are disappearing by the end of the film, but that doesn't stop if from bring and intriguing and fascinating watch.
This is a movie that has clearly been made with a lot of love and care and that really does shine out in every frame.
2013 really has been a stand out year for documentaries, and More Than Honey is right up there with the best.
More Than Honey is out now.