I couldn’t help but think of Honeyland (2019) while watching this slow and sparse documentary about farmers on an isolated Montenegrin mountain.

It has a similar way of centring the camera onto the (probably) prematurely aged face of a rural woman and following her through the trials and tribulations of being a farmer in the 21st-century.

Gara lives in what seems to be a single room hut in the middle of a beautiful and rocky mountain environment. She has cattle and sheep and goats, there are many cats, and her life is full of tending to animals and being in the middle of whatever the weather will bring.

She has a daughter, Nada, who is perhaps in her mid-teens, and who disappears off to school but spends weekends helping with the many farm chores. We watch Gara as she navigates a government plan to turn the mountain into a military training ground, speaking up at rallies and being interviewed on television. She is confident and fierce and as we spend time with her, we begin to understand why.

There is a photo of a woman on the wall that is something of a shrine and this turns out to be Gara‘s sister Mika, who also turns out to be Nada‘s mother. Mika was killed by her husband when her children were small and Gara took on the role of parent to them all as well as her own children. We don’t really get to dive into this, just see the never ending ripples of family violence.

Interestingly, directors Petar Glomazić and Biljana Tutorov make sure the camera frame more or less excludes any men. It feels like a life of women and matriarchy, with men on the periphery or just characters who are talked about but not seen. It feels a little like payback for the many many films that do the opposite.

It’s not quite as devastating and absorbing as Honeyland, where we really felt a strong dramatic drive. It has its moments though, and there was someone in my row sobbing as Gara and Nada talked about Mika’s fate, and when we watched the cruelty of nature that any farmer will understand. You won’t forget some moments though – the strenuous attempt to rescue a cow and calf, the laborious task of bathing and washing hair and the camaraderie of the community.