The Beekeeper

The Beekeeper (, translit. O Melissokomos) is a 1986 Greek drama art film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. The film is the second installment in Angelopoulos's "trilogy of silence", preceded by Voyage to Cythera and followed by Landscape in the Mist. Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman hailed The Beekeeper as a "masterpiece". The Beekeeper was selected for the 43rd Venice International Film Festival. The film was the first of Angelopoulos's to use an already well-known actor, in this case, Marcello Mastroianni, who by the time has won the Best Actor award at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival once and was nominated for the Best Actor at the 50th Academy Awards. Plot The film follows the journey of Spyros, a beekeeper, to various parts of Greece after his daughter's wedding. Spyros has just retired as a teacher and sets out on his annual journey in spring to move his bee hives to a series of locations with flowering plants. A girl hops on Spyros' truck, and travels with him. They visit Spyros' old friends and his wife along the way, and finally arrive at a theater owned by one of his friends, which is about to be sold. There, Spyros and the girl finally have an erotic encounter, long after Spyros has tried to coerce her into kissing but failed. The girl leaves after a few nights, before the movie ends with Spyros turning over his beehive boxes, causing him to be stung repeatedly by the understandably angry bees. The final scene sees the dying Spyros tapping on the ground, as he continues to suffer from more and more agonising stings, which reminds us of the tapping of his sick friend before Spyros left him in the hospital. Cast Marcello Mastroianni as Spyros Nadia Mourouzi as the girl Serge Reggiani as the sick man Jenny Roussea as Spyros' wife Dinos Iliopoulos as Spyros' friend, owner of Ciné Pantheon Iakovos Panotas as soldier/the girl's boyfriend Vassia Panagopoulou Stamatis Gardelis Mihalis Giannatos Karyofyllia Karabeti Konstandinos Konstandopoulos Nikos Kouros Christoforos Nezer Stratos Pahis Dimitris Poulikakos Athinodoros Prousalis