The crew spent three years on location, for principal photography.
First film to be nominated at the Academy Awards for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Film.
Film crew doesn't speak nor understand that specific Turkish dialect that was spoken among the most important protagonists. Only in the editing room, when they got their first translation, they would realize how great and important some spoken lines are.
The two co-directors discovered the beekeeper while doing research for an environmental documentary. Eventually they shot over 400 hours of footage, on visits to Hatidze's village that lasted for a few days each, sleeping in tents.
Co-director Tamara Kotevska explains that "the film works like a mirror. Some people recognize themselves in Hatidze [Hatidze Muratova]. Some people recognize themselves in the other family."