More Than Honey: dir Markus Imhoof (2012)

“If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth,” said Albert Einstein, “man would have no more than four years left to live”. That’s because without the bees’ pollinating work, agriculture could collapse and with it our ability to feed ourselves.

Well, all over the world bees have been dying for the past few years. Although the causes for this are still a mystery, one thing is already clear: there is more at stake than simply a few dead insects, and a great deal more than just honey. Imhoof’s documentary takes us on a journey to meet some of the people and places whose existence depends on bees – a Swiss beekeeper in the Alps, the gigantic almond plantations of California, a bee brain researcher in Berlin, a pollen trader in China. His directorial style is laid back; there’s no hectoring here, we can draw our own conclusions. And along the way there’s much to enjoy in this film, with the mystery and beauty of bees emerging strongly – including the perennially fascinating question of whether individual bees are effectively buzzing cells in super-organisms: do they know more than us?

The film screens in the NAAS programme under the umbrella title Green Reel: Films for a Sustainable Future, featuring independent films from around the world that focus on the environment and sustainability. NAAS is a collaboration between a number of cultural institutions in the UAE: the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region, the Embassies of France in the United Arab Emirates, the Embassy of Canada to the United Arab Emirates, the Italian Cultural Institute of Abu Dhabi, the Embassy of Switzerland to the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Alliance Française Dubai.

NAAS: Green Reel runs from 10 September to 26 November at Alliance Française Dubai. The screenings are all free and subtitled in English.

Upcoming: (click the title for the link)

19 November Hadwin’s Judgement dir Sasha Snow (2015)
26 November Dans la brume | Just a Breath Away dir Daniel Roby (2018)