A compelling companion piece to Quo Vadis, Aida?, HIVE shifts the action from Bosnia to Kosovo to show the insidious consequence of irredentism.

Fahrije’s husband has been missing since the war in Kosovo, and along with their grief, her family is struggling financially. Her father in law is crippled and needing personal care, her daughter is needing educational accoutrements. In order to provide for them she launches a small agricultural business, but in the traditional patriarchal village where she lives, her ambition and efforts to empower herself and other women are not seen as positive things.

Misogyny is part of the cultural fabric, remarrying is not a socially acceptable option, much less learning to drive and getting a license. Fear and gossip keep them tethered to neolithic norms.

Men decide and women then live, or die, with the consequences of that decision making. Men want to be right not necessarily do right.

HIVE presents us with a fearless Fahrije, a forward future making female deciding to move on and develop a business where she not only helps herself and her family, but other widows too, an encouraging and compelling woman that leads by example.

Writer/Director, Blerta Basholli employs a considered and uncompromising naturalism to her film, honing a sharp blade of verisimilitude to cut a swathe through the hypocrisy and hostility these women are bombarded with.

Yllka Gashi is fabulous as Fahrije. Resilient, resourceful and robust, a cause for change against stale custom. Tradition can be the mortar of culture, but concrete can be prone to cancer, and old structres need to be re-calibrated.

Hive won three awards at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic category: The Audience Award, Directing Award & the Grand Jury Prize. Hive is also Kosovo’s official entry for the Oscars’ international feature category.