20,000 BEE SPECIES
A film by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Distributor: BTEAM PICTURES
Exhibiting company: Vicente Espadas, SA
SUMMARY
Eight-year-old Cocó stands apart from what others expect. He resists the names people press on him and cannot recognize himself in those labels, even when adults insist that his name is Aitor. The struggle to see who he is intensifies as the world around him tries to fit him into a familiar box. This is a boy who does not fit neatly into the picture others hold, and that misalignment becomes the first drumbeat of a delicate, unfolding drama.
During a personal and emotional crossroads, Cocó’s mother, Ane, presses pause on the routine of daily life. She takes her three children home to her own mother’s house, a place steeped in memory and grounded in the craft of beekeeping and honey production. Ane’s holiday retreat becomes a turning point, a space where the family can breathe, reflect, and face the truths they have kept at bay for far too long. The grandmother Lita and Ane’s sister Lourdes welcome them, each carrying their own yearnings and histories, each shaped by generations of women who have learned to maneuver through joy and hardship alike.
What begins as a visit to a familiar place becomes a life-altering summer. The beehives, with their patient, purposeful motion, mirror the family’s path toward honesty. The film uses the quiet, almost ritual cadence of honey production to explore the way generations pass down secrets, fears, and resilience. It becomes a story about choosing presence over pretension, honesty over silence, and freedom over fitting in. In this intimate setting, the women confront what they have avoided for years. They confront longing, fear, and the possibility that change might arrive not as a thunderbolt but as a careful, steady shift in perception. The family’s shared space becomes a stage where vulnerability is practiced and courage is earned through small, consistent acts of truth-telling.
The film traces the vulnerable, hopeful arc of Ane as she seeks a clearer sense of who she is beyond the roles she has played for others. It is a portrait of a mother learning to trust her own voice, even when that voice unsettles long-held assumptions. Her sisters and mother each reveal their own strengths and insecurities, revealing deeper layers of kinship, memory, and the quiet power of ancestral craft. The bees and their honey become symbols of life’s sweetness and its sting, a reminder that creation often requires patience, care, and time. As the story unfolds, the characters discover that belonging is not a fixed label but a living practice. The summer becomes a turning point in which truth, rather than tradition, guides the path forward.
FILE
Original title: 20,000 species of bees
Director: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Screenplay: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Producers: Gariza Films and Inicia Films
Cast: Patricia López Arnaiz, Ane Gabaraín, Miguel Garcés, Itziar Lazkano, Martxelo Rubio, Sara Cozar
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain