22/02/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: Estíbaliz Urresola makes her feature directorial debut with a sensitive, activist and moving film, starring a group of exceptional actresses

A few years ago, at a Seville European Film Festival ravaged by the wretched pandemic, this columnist was deeply moved by Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary Little Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sébastien Lifshitz
film profile], which showed how a courageous mother fought for her daughter to be accepted at school with the gender her daughter identified as. Last December, the Spanish Marta Nieto travelled to the French festival Les Arcs to present her short film Son. In it, she narrates how a mother and her son get lost in a maze which is a great metaphor for the problems of identity and acceptance faced by transgender children (this actress is working on her first feature film as a director, on the same subject, entitled La mitad de Ana). The protagonist of this short film is Patricia López Arnaiz, the same actress who plays one of the main characters in 20,000 Species of Bees [+see also:
trailer
interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
film profile], Estíbaliz Urresola’s debut feature film competing in the official section of the 73rd Berlin Film Festival. And I think I am right in thinking that Carla Simón, who a year ago won the Golden Bear and now forms part of this Berlin jury, will find similarities with her Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
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interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile] in this film, which also focuses on the rural life, changes and the home, although the conflicts it raises are different, but equally universal.

In 20,000 Species of Bees we meet a married couple and their brood during the summer: the youngest of which starts to want to be called Lucia. This will cause a hecatomb both in the rigid social structure of which she is a part and in how others see themselves, especially her mother.

Urresola, who also wrote the script, sets the action in a Basque village. A microcosm where women of different generations interact, hiding murky aspects of their past, accustomed to inertias of shame and modesty that prevent them from living their lives to the full and bravely facing the metamorphoses that the future presents them with. This is why the emergence of the transsexual daughter/sister/niece/granddaughter will act as a trigger for all of them. Each one will react in different, opposing or confrontational ways, as change is not always accepted when we encounter it.

The filmmaker, whose short film Cuerdas was screened at the Cannes Critics' Week, now addresses plurality, exploration and transformation with a stratospheric sensitivity, a narrative rich in subtleties and symbols (albeit with an excessive two-hour running time) and superb work by her actresses. Patricia López Arnaiz and Ane Gabarain are tremendous as in Ane [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Pérez Sañudo
film profile] and Patria [+see also:
series review
series profile], respectively, but there are not enough adjectives to commend Sofía Otero (keep an eye on her, it is impossible not to succumb to her talent).

20.000 Species of Bees is produced by Gariza Films, Inicia Films and Sirimiri Films. After the Berlinale, it will be screened at the Malaga Film Festival in March, before being released in Spanish cinemas on 21 April, distributed by Bteam Pictures. It will be exported by Luxbox.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)