Estibaliz Urresola’s delicate debut feature 20,000 Species of Bees – for which its young star Sofía Otero won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at 2022’s Berlin Film Festival – is a tender, heartfelt drama about an eight-year-old’s unforgettable summer holiday of self-discovery.

Cocó (Otero) is a trans girl who is perplexed by the gender binaries that rule her world, where boys and girls are divided at playtime, and relatives chide her long hair. Ane (Patricia López Arnaiz), her mother, takes the children back to her hometown in the Basque Country for the summer, where Cocó spends hours with her great aunt, the village beekeeper, watching her work and asking her to define unfamiliar terms. It’s here that Cocó feels most free to be herself while her mother Ane who is well-meaning, is distracted by her own troubles, and goes through an identity crisis of her own.

Reminiscent of Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy in its considered authenticity, 20,000 Species of Bees offers a child’s eye view of growing up, delving into its lead’s struggles with humanity and grace.

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