Honey (Bal)

Semih Kaplanoğlu directed Honey (Turkish title Bal), a 104-minute drama co-produced by Turkey, Germany and France. It is the last part of the "Yusuf Trilogy", which follows the poet Yusuf backwards through his life after Egg (2007) and Milk (2008). Premiering in competition at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival on 16 February 2010, it won the Golden Bear, the third Turkish film to do so after Susuz Yaz (1964) and Head-On (2004). It reached Turkish cinemas on 9 April 2010.

The story centres on young Yusuf, who has just started school, and his father, a beekeeper working deep in a gloomy forest. Where Egg showed the adult Yusuf and Milk his bond with his mother, Honey returns to the poet's childhood, with the father taking the mother's place. One night Yusuf tells his father a dream, but its content stays a secret. When his father goes into the forest depths and does not return, the boy withdraws into himself and finally goes into the woods to look for him. Bora Altaş, Erdal Beşikçioğlu and Tülin Özen star.

Kaplanoğlu wrote the screenplay with Orçun Köksal, and filming took place in the Çamlıhemşin district of Rize, at the foot of the Kaçkar Mountains. The film was Turkey's candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 83rd Academy Awards but missed the final shortlist.