Witness for the Beekeepers
In the first year of Athmuranar I’s reign, Puzhvarneise cousins Vanëo and Velheän (actresses uncredited) find their young lives turned sideways when their twin fathers fail to return home from the Athamareise War of Independence. After seeing R. Nathomar’s Battle for the Zhomaikora, the girls believe the film to be real and grow convinced their fathers must have served in the fictional battle and must be alive somewhere. Together, they set off in search of the absent war heroes. This heartfelt film by Ditu Rezharan captures childhood in its truest form, tender as it is terrifying. (6 E’has 9)

One Pot of Eladriät
On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Scholar Second-Class Tela Veltava (Ulvena Amalezh) is invited to the house of his estranged mentor, former University Bursar Osmer Virenar. When he arrives, Osmerrem Virenaran sits him in the empty parlor with a single pot of eledriät—and locks the door. She reveals that Osmer Virenar died one week ago, and that she believes she has uncovered the truth of Veltava’s role in an affair her husband had some fifteen years ago. If he does not defend himself to her satisfaction by the time the pot is empty, she will have Veltava ruined. The only film by director Beshero Erimel before her early death by sessiva, One Pot of Eledriät brings an unflinching yet empathetic perspective to abuses of power in Athamareise academia. (13 E’has 9)

Up in the Attic
Produced a decade after the Commonwealth decriminalized faced film, Up in the Attic is one of a unique set of films which playfully mix the established kinematic conventions with the era’s newfound creative freedoms. Told through the lens of a young man digging through a forgotten attic, the film guides the audience through six vignettes, each a fictionalised retelling of director Tomara Coralezh’s own family history. From an ancestor in the age of Varenechibel III to a brother who lived and died before the director’s birth, these deeply personal reinterpretations explore questions of narrative, truth, and where the two struggle to overlap. (17 E’has 9)

Shess Tid
Mm. Qentak
Introduction to Dakhenbarizheise Cinema
429 words

Witness for the Beekeepers is a tale of two cousins (who are practically sisters, given that their fathers are genetically identical and have raised them in the same multigenerational house) of the Ediremada seeking out the site of a battle they saw in a dachencala'zhoan, a sidewalk tent-theatre. Unable to distinguish fiction from reality, the character of Sgt. Ediremar has the grieving girls convinced one of their fathers was a war hero in the fictional Battle for the Zhomaikora, and they set off on an adventure which soon leaves them stranded in a small village outside the city of Ashedro.

There, they meet the titular Witness for the Beekeepers, Mer Csozha Thalanar. The only detective in town, Thalanar is tasked with the keeping of the two girls until their guardians are found (a task the girls actively hinder by insisting that they have no family but the fictitious Sgt. Ediremar, leading the detective to assume the whole story a "wonder-tale" dreamt up by a pair of foundlings). At the same time, he is responsible with the investigation of the sudden and suspicious death of fifteen bee colonies.

Thalanar, of course, cannot uncover the conspiracy behind the massacre of the bees without the lessons learned in caring for a pair of girls who, over time, he has begun to think of almost as daughters. This relationship is not one-sided, either: towards the end of the film, Vanëo has a crying fit the grizzled Thanalar must comfort her through, during which she accidentally calls him 'papa'. For all they set off on this journey to find their fathers, the fact of the matter is that the men left when the girls were so young, they have no memory of their fathers as people, not what they looked like or how they acted. [They are following the trail of a fictional character in more ways than one: the men they hope to find are not really any more real than the Battle for the Zhomaikora was.

Witness for the Beekeepers is a movie about movies, or at least about what it means to grow up watching them.] Over the course of the film, Vanëo grows increasingly attached to Thalanar and begins to lose her grip on reality, truly believing they have no other family and that her father abandoned her after starring in Nathomar's film. Velheän, meanwhile, rewatches Battle of the Zhomaikora and realises the warships are actually models tugged about a set on strings and admits their lie to Thalanar. [In other words, Vanëo remains a child, and Velheän grows up.]

This is a very well-written summary, and you will certainly receive full credit for the assignment, but admittedly I was looking forward to your usual enthusiasm. I've marked spots where I see the beginnings of an argument, just in case you would be interested in bringing this topic into a future paper.

Hope all is well on your end. Beekeepers can be a difficult watch for some. I strongly encourage you to read In Pursuit of Metakino at soonest convenience as it will likely provide you with an interesting lens for films such as this one. I also strongly encourage you to take a night off before doing so, if you have the ability.