Honey by Semih Kaplanoglu

HONEY /SYNOPSIS

Honey, the third in the Yusuf trilogy, is also the last stage in the journey we take to the origin of a soul.

Yusuf reached maturity in Egg while in Milk he was on the verge of leaving home and becoming an adult. Honey takes us to the childhood of the poet.

Honey is the inner story of a boy who searches for his lost father at a point where he's trying to make sense of life, living in the remotest and wildest area of the Eastern Black Sea Region where modern life has not yet penetrated.

Called 'The World's Finest Honey,' the Black Hive Honey (specific to the region) is produced by a dwindling number of beekeepers in hand-made hives set on treetops in the deepest reaches of a dark and frightening forest.

A joint effort by the endangered Caucasian bees and the beekeeper Yakup, this therapeutic honey is the essence of an older world, untouched nature and holiest knowledge for the inhabitants of the region.

Yakup, the skilful gatherer of this miracle on high treetops, intrepid in the face of all hardships and perils, is a holy person in the eyes of his son Yusuf. The loss of his father, who had vanquished the terrifying forest in Yusuf's eyes, the colossal trees and the monster in his lair, disillusions the boy greatly.

The first poems he writes using the letters he's learned at school taste of the Black Hive Honey.

Yusuf defies the forest on the way between school and home. He wants his father back. He firmly believes his father, in his eyes very like the prophet his grandmother often talks about, will return one day.

Yusuf confronts a completely unfamiliar world when he steps into the forest, gathering all his courage to try to find his father. The tree by which he is to spend the night and the darkness of the forest will capture his soul for all eternity.