Terrific performances from the ensemble cast bring warmth and insight to this Cannes Grand Prix winner about an alt-lifestyle family eking out a breadline existence as beekeepers in the Tuscan wilds. When a television crew filming the surreally tacky “Countryside Wonders” competition rolls up, 12-year-old Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu, brilliant) is transfixed by the spectacle of Monica Bellucci’s rural goddess and resolves to get her own family on the show. But Sam Louwyck’s gruff patriarch, Wolfgang, is opposed to any such selling out, despite the family’s urgent need for money. The plot may be gossamer-thin but the characters are sturdily drawn and life on the farm engrossingly evoked. Natural light captured on 16mm film adds earthy texture to the drama, while images of bees crawling from Gelsomina’s mouth add a magical-realist element to the rites-of-passage rituals.
