20,000 SPECIES OF BEES (20.000 ESPECIES DE ABEJAS) Discovery

In this sun-soaked, sublimely sensitive debut, writer/director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren sets her lens on an eight-year-old’s identity crisis over one uncertain summer vacation. Ane, in the midst of separating from her husband, takes her children to her hometown, a sleepy village on the Spanish side of Basque Country, to stay with her mother. There, our young heroine, nicknamed Coco (at least for the moment), explores her gender identity under the cautious, yet loving gaze of three generations of women in her family, who concurrently also reflect on their own place in the world. Newcomer Sofía Otero, who received the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin Film Festival, marvels on screen with her delicate yet magnetic presence as Coco. In search of a new name, and increasingly frustrated with her family still treating her as her assigned gender at birth – a boy, Coco finds refuge with her great-aunt Lourdes and her beehives. As secrets are whispered against the busy buzzing of bees, they may just guide her and her family toward a deeper acceptance and understanding with each other. –Anna Li