'Hive' (2022)

Moving account (based on a true story) of a woman searching for closure after her husband went missing in the Kosovan war. There are many allegories in the film - people talk about seeing red fish in the river (blood of the dead?), the Hives that the missing husband built are somewhat recreated when our main character decides to start a bustling business selling jars of red pepper in her home. Needless to say, that doesn't go to plan.

It's a feminist film that paints most men in the town's setting as old fashioned morally dubious patriarchs and has a strong central performance by Yllka Gashi. It's a sad film that has echoes of 2020's 'Quo Vadis, Aida'. But it feels like an important one.

8.1/10