Pčelarenje pred Kijamet

Film · Synopsis

Synopsis

Two sisters film the bees, and how the bees are coming through the effects of climate change in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Honey is thinning across the country. Travelling out from their own apiary on the mountainside, through Bosnian wilds and wastes, they meet beekeepers, and in conversation the Islamic tellings about the signs of the end of the world are recounted between them.

Paraphrased from the authors' synopsis · beekeepingintheendtimes.com →

The film comes out of long ethnographic research into beekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina, carried on from 2014 to 2019, and out of filming at the author's own apiary. Some of the footage is shot on former front lines and in industrial zones, places that have since become new lines of forage.

Structure · Three tellings

Structure

The film is built around three folk tellings, each paired with an extreme weather event.

Tellings

IThe angels who listen for the signs of the Endamong them the endangerment of animals
IIPlanting on the eve of the apocalypseplant even on the Day of Judgment, on the Prophet's advice
IIIThe flower called stid, shamewhose disappearance marks a shameless ecological negligence

The frame

Eco-eschatologyIslamic tellings of the end of time read as ecological thought
New lines of forageformer front lines and industrial zones as bee pasture
Honey is thinningclimate change in the relation between plant, bee and beekeeper

Authors · Equally credited

The authors

Larisa Jašarević Anthropologist, independent researcher, beekeeper and filmmaker. She took her doctorate in anthropology at the University of Chicago, where she taught for a decade, and was a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Since 2014 she has been researching beekeeping, bee ecologies in a changing climate, and Islamic eschatology in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She lives and keeps bees on the mountain. Her ISRF Independent Scholar Fellowship (2022–23) funded the film's post-production and distribution.

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Azra Jašarević Independent filmmaker from Tuzla. She trained at the International School of Film and Television at San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba. Since 2020 she has run a film and multimedia school in Tuzla. She was the guest of Dvonoćje II · 26, where the film was shown.

Full profile →

Book · Of the same name

The book

Indiana University Press · March 2024 · 216 pp. · open access

Beekeeping in the End Times

Larisa Jašarević

Book and film are paired works from the same research. The book follows the extreme weather and the quieter catastrophes that have been altering honey ecologies across Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2014, reading the field observations of beekeepers alongside the Qur'an, hadith and Sufi texts.

The book was launched by the ISRF at Queen Mary University of London in March 2024,
where an excerpt from the film was also shown.

Book · IU Press → Project · ISRF →

Stills · the five chapters

From the film

Roje li se pčele? Priča o dva meleka Chapter 1

Med je na točkovima. Pčelarske dove Chapter 2

Sadi i na Smak Svijeta: Poslanikov Savjet Chapter 3

Ekologija Pred Kijamet. Šejtan u Srcu Chapter 4

Kraj: Božije Obećanje Chapter 5

Making of From the production

Credits · Production

Production

Authorship

Larisa Jašarević and Azra Jašarevićdirection, production, editing and camera. Sisters and beekeepers, they sign everything jointly
Mirza Redžepagićoriginal score, drawing on maqam, Sufi invocation, Balkan lore and industrial rhythm

Scale

72 hours of footageshot at 32 locations
Mountain, riverine and Mediterranean ecologiesacross Bosnia and Herzegovina
Post-production ran to twice the length of the shoot

Support came from the Wenner-Gren Fejos Fellowship for ethnographic filmmaking (USA), the ACLS/Luce Program for Religion, Journalism & International Affairs (USA), and the Independent Social Research Foundation (UK/NL), with Platform Arts (Australia) supporting the Geelong screening.

The film is self-produced. There is no separate sound recordist and no production company.

Running time: 63 minutes. The figure rests on a single source, Platform Arts, and is still to be confirmed with the authors.

Screenings · A record

Screenings

A record

2023Hitchcock Cinema · Queen Mary University of LondonPublic editing session, working cut · 4 May 2023
2023Universität Bremen · Institute of Anthropology and Cultural ResearchScreening and a reading from the book · 22 November 2023
2024Queen Mary University of LondonExcerpt, at the ISRF book launch · 28 March 2024
2025Online premiereFinal cut shown on World Bee Day · 20 May 2025
2025Platform Arts · Geelong, AustraliaScreening with a live Q&A from Bosnia · 5 June 2025
2025Sufi Cinema Festival · Konya, TurkeyThe only festival screening on record · 10 October 2025
2026Dom mladih · TuzlaScreening and presentation of the project, with the author · 21 January 2026
2026Maxwell School · Syracuse University, USAAnnounced screening with the authors · 23 April 2026
2026Dvonoćje II · 26 · MijakovićiOn the terrace at Zvjezdane Staze, with an introduction and a conversation afterwards · 21 June 2026, the summer solstice

The record is incomplete and is added to as more comes to light.

Mijakovići · 21 June 2026

At Dvonoćje

The film was shown on the solstice at 21:00, introduced by Azra Jašarević, who spoke about how it came about and where it was shot. The conversation that followed ran without chairs turned to face the front and without a division between speaker and audience. Bees are kept in a number of households in Mijakovići.