Acclaimed Swiss director Markus Imhoof’s new project More Than Honey has made a noticeable splash in the world of documentary filmmaking, picking up numerous awards including a Lola (German Film Award) for best documentary. It is a simple yet elegantly composed film confronting a frighteningly contemporary issue; the unexplained deterioration of the global bee population. The downward spiralling figures of colonies over the past fifteen years and across nations have left scientists and bee farmers dumbfounded. The long term effects of ‘colony collapse disorder’ (as the phenomenon has been named) could be devastating for both agriculture and economy worldwide. Imhoff travels across the world and meets various beekeepers, business owners and scientists as they explain the disaster confronting them and what they believe to be the causes behind it.
In his approach to what admittedly sounds like fairly dry subject matter, More Than Honey fuses fact and humanity in an engaging and subtle manner that avoids any sense of preaching. The film has running narration from Imhoof referring to his childhood memories of beekeeping in his family and remembering its unique mix of family values and commerce. The English translation is provided by the great actor John Hurt, whose warm tones still have an air of sombre fragility that match the tone of Imhoof’s recollections and findings. Rather than settle on traditional talking head interviews, the film takes its time with every subject, spending time observing them in their specific locale and professions. One of the most memorable subjects, beekeeper Fred Jaggi, is shown in particular methodical detail in his native German countryside, from tending to his hives to terminating rogue queens (ie. queens guilty of infidelity!). There are no hurried edits, no voiceovers layered over his own and no artificial sentiments. As a result there is far more genuine empathy than a lot of other documentaries would be able to muster even with potentially more attention grabbing subject matter. The sight of the old man’s calm yet forlorn face as a lost beehive is burned speaks volumes.
Then there is the astonishing footage of bees themselves, filmed in their natural habitat with micro cameras and in stunning high definition quality. Looming out of their honeycombs and swarming over one another and their queens, the footage captured is at once bizarre, otherworldly and yet oddly beautiful; the smallest aspects of nature blown up to epic scope cinema. Anyone uncomfortable around insects may obviously find this approach not entirely comfortable but it makes a refreshing change from the normal depiction of insects in cinema as a source of disgust or stupidly vengeful nature. Rather the film refreshingly focuses on the unwarranted wrath that we may have foisted upon them.
It is possible to argue that Imhoff doesn’t bring his intertwining threads to a thorough conclusion but since this is an ongoing environmental crisis, a pat ending for comforts sake would ring false. Though there is a sliver of hope provided, Imhoff wants to keep this mysterious epidemic fresh in the viewer’s perspective and get them thinking and talking about something that we take for granted being in genuine danger of disappearing completely. With a clear vision and unfussy style, he has constructed and powerful understated wake up call.