20,000 Species of Bees (12A)

A tender, heartfelt drama about an eight-year-old’s indelible summer holiday of self-discovery.

Estibaliz Urresola’s delicate debut feature 20,000 especies de abejas follows Cocó; a trans girl who rejects her given name, Aitor, and is perplexed by the gender binaries that rule her world, where boys and girls are divided at playtime, and relatives chide her long hair.

An inquisitive soul with a thirst for knowledge, Cocó loves to learn new words and skills, and questions why she doesn’t feel certain of who she is when it seems so easy for her older siblings. 

Ane, her mother, takes the children back to her hometown in the Basque Country for the summer, where Cocó spends hours with her great aunt, the village beekeeper, watching her work and asking her to define unfamiliar terms.

It’s here that Cocó feels most free to be herself. While Ane is well-meaning, she is distracted by her own troubles, and is going through an identity crisis of her own. 

★★★ "A child’s gender identity crisis is mirrored by her mother’s crisis of identity as an artist in this warm, generously performed film." ~ The Guardian.

Languages:
Basque and Spanish

Subtitles:
Full English