The award-winning Spanish drama 20,000 Species Of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas) tells the story of Lucía, an eight-year-old transgender girl and the effect her identity has on her family.

Starring in the movie are Sofía Otero, Patricia López Arnaiz, Ane Gabarain, and Itziar Lazkano.

Release Date

Directed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, making her feature directorial debut, 20,000 Species Of Bees world premiered at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival where the film won the Guild Film Prize, Berliner Morgenpost Readers‘ Jury Award, and Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for Sofía Otero; and will open in theaters on June 14, 2014.

Synopsis

In a small, sleepy village in the Basque Country, a sculptor named Ane and her three children arrive at her mother Lita’s home for summer vacation where they are surrounded by extended family and nosy neighbors. Ane and her mother’s relationship is strained – Lita disapproves of her daughter’s frayed marriage, career as an artist, and the way she parents her obstinate and mischievous children. Chief among them is eight-year-old Aitor, nicknamed Coco after it becomes clear that being referred to by his given name elicits feelings of distress. Born biologically male, neither birth name nor the genderless nickname feel quite right, and Ane’s concern for her child grows as Coco becomes more withdrawn. The child’s only respite lies in the Basque hills, where Ane’s aunt Lourdes tends to the family’s beekeeping farm. Among the peaceful humming of bees and Lourdes’ open-minded guardianship, Coco slowly begins to confide in family and friends her discomfort in her body, eventually voicing a desire to be treated as a girl. As Coco explores her own developing identity over the summer, Ane and the rest of her family in turn must learn to accept the child as she is.

Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s assured debut feature is a wonderfully sensitive work carried by the Berlinale Silver Bear winning lead performance of newcomer Sofía Otero.

Reviews

The Guardian review gave the ‘warm, generously performed film‘ 3 of 5 stars, writing, “There’s gentleness and delicacy in this heartfelt family drama, a fiction feature debut from Basque film-maker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren. It shows that the crises experienced by children, and by the adults coming to terms with those crises, are part of a larger ecosystem of emotional difficulty in the extended family.”

The Hollywood Reporter review wrote, “And yet this moving chronicle of an 8-year-old’s gradual transitioning, and the effect it has on a family over their summer vacation, manages to be both timely and timeless, making its hot-button issue feel like part of a larger, spiritual cycle of life and loss. Carried by impressively fluid, determinedly naturalistic filmmaking, with performances that never hit a false note, 20,000 Species of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas) marks an assured debut, slowly but surely hitting an emotional crescendo during its final minutes.”

Official Trailer

Watch the official trailer for 20,000 Species Of Bees.