The hero of the story in The Flight of the Bee is a middle-aged schoolteacher who tells his pupils with visible pleasure about the history and nature of his land. He is an ordinary, poor man with a strong feeling for justice. He is working on a book that is to be called The Flight of the Bee. His neighbour, a lout, is stinking rich. Although only divided by a wall, the two live in entirely different worlds. The rich neighbour despises the schoolteacher. He bothers the teacher’s wife and builds an open toilet next to his home. When the smell gets too much, the teacher complains, but is immediately kicked out. This is reason enough for the teacher to start a battle against injustice in the world. But the publicprosecutor is also arrogant. No law has been broken, he says, so the teacher’s anger is also directed at the prosecutor. He buys a piece of land beside the prosecutor’s house and starts digging a huge public toilet…In a black & white film with a tinted look, Usmonov and Min evoke the mood of a simple village in Tadzhikistan where everyday life is dominated by the same contrasts and conflicts as in a large metropolis. This moving low-budget narrative, realised in difficult conditions during the civil war, puts social relations in the new Tadzhikistan in a broader context.
