… a beautiful film …

| Original Score: 18/20 | Dec 14, 2024

Much of the story’s moral force depends on the splendid Yllka Gashi, a presence of such forbidding strength that when her features soften even for a moment we are riveted.

| Sep 16, 2023

A hidden gem that should be sought out.

| Feb 21, 2023

A powerhouse of a true tale that's brought to the screen with a devastatingly potent lead performance, Hive is simply unshakeable.

| Jun 25, 2022

Films from the Balkans often connect back to the war in the 1990s ... While Basholli honors that past in her film, the focus on women in an area where misogyny still lingers takes the film in a whole new emotional direction.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 21, 2022

Blerta Basholli successfully depicts, with clear and simple language, the hostility that surrounds her: that exclusive place where women are not allowed to enter. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 14, 2022

The film is anchored by Gashi’s quietly commanding performance as a resilient woman who wants only to survive with dignity which, in the end, honors her husband more than suffering in silence.

| May 31, 2022

This is basically an underdog story, and Basholli handles the job expertly, making sure we are on board with Fahrije, and never allowing us to forget the backstory that motivates the characters.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2022

Basholli maintains a superbly understated approach, allowing big feelings to gurgle strongly under the surface. She captures the textures of this culture beautifully, finding powerfully warm expressions of humanity in between the darker ones.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 24, 2022

Bashollis debut feature is a complex and compelling piece about the striking power of resilient women. It is a breath-taking film that will buzz and hum around your mind long after viewing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 22, 2022

The abuse of women in a remote Kosovan village, especially women engaged in business merely in support of their family, is raw and powerful in this modest, naturalistic fiction feature based on real life

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 21, 2022

The story... has a few formulaic steps, but it’s strong and engrossing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 20, 2022

Basholli understands that healing is possible, even if closure isn’t.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 19, 2022

Hive is a clipped, unsentimental, inspiring film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 18, 2022

The feel-good finale is well-earned and the glimpse of the women on whom the film is based is, for once, not merely a watermark of authenticity, but a genuinely moving vista.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 18, 2022

Hive cooks up a beautifully delicate rally for independence and justice, brought out through precise processes of the communal culinary experience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 18, 2022

Basholli’s film is an intentionally tough watch, but its triumph-over-adversity message hits harder as a result.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 16, 2022

In its quiet but determined way, Hive gradually accumulates a kind of unarguable moral authority, driven by Gashi’s indomitable performance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 16, 2022

This is a richly intelligent drama, in which every word and every shot counts.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 16, 2022

Basholli returned to her native Kosovo in order to make this film and its understated story is fortified by her emotionally resonant, observant and raw approach to the subject matter.

| Mar 16, 2022