Winner of the Audience Award, Directing Award, and World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and Kosovo’s official submission for the Academy Awards®, HIVE is a searing drama based on the true story of Fahrije (Yllka Gashi) — who, like many of the other women in her patriarchal village, has lived with fading hope and burgeoning grief since her husband went missing during the war in Kosovo. In order to provide for her struggling family, she pulls the other widows in her community together to launch a business selling ajvar, a local food product. Together, they find healing and solace in considering a future without their husbands — but their will to begin living independently is met with hostility.
The men in the village condemn Fahrije’s efforts to empower herself and the women around her, starting a feud that threatens their newfound sovereignty — and the financial future of Fahrije’s family. Against the backdrop of Eastern Europe’s civil unrest and lingering misogyny, Fahrije and the other women of her village join in a struggle to find hope in the face of an uncertain future — make HIVE a pithy, devastating portrait of loss and our uphill journeys to freedom.
“...A bold, powerful testament to the agency of women everywhere, all the more compelling because it’s based on a true story.” —Audrey Fox, We Live Entertainment “...Seizes and holds your interest simply through the drama created by sympathetic characters trying to surmount awful, unfair hurdles. Mostly, though, what holds you rapt is Gashi’s powerful, physically grounded performance, which lyrically articulates her taciturn character’s inner workings.” —Manohla Dargis, New York Times “What Basholli has made is a thoughtful, humanistic exploration of the fortitude needed to summon hope in a time and place resigned to hopelessness.” —Roxana Hadadi, A.V. Club
