Bal (Honey) review

The final part of Turkish writer-director Semih Kaplanoglu’s reverse-order ‘Yusuf Trilogy’ revisits the central character’s childhood in a mountainous region of north-eastern Turkey.

Yusuf himself (Bora Atlas) is a shy six-year-old who struggles at school because of his stutter, and who relishes accompanying his beekeeper father Yakup (Erdal Besikcioglu) on honey-gathering trips in the nearby forest.

Shot in long, fixed takes and relying on natural light and sounds, this is a beautifully photographed if emotionally muted study of lost innocence.

For all its pleasures, it covers terrain already heavily mined by other arthouse filmmakers.