The Well / The Flight of the Bee Q&A Session

Both The Well and The Flight of the Bee are parables in which the action of digging in the earth and a calm trickle of water are so closely related to village daily life as to be almost humorous. With director Djamshed Usmonov, who worked on both films, unwell and unable to attend FILMeX, the task of answering audience questions fell entirely to The Flight of the Bee co-director Min Byoung-hun, who responded sincerely to a series of weighty questions. "Usmonov and I have been friends since we studied film together in Moscow. I was very moved by The Well, his first work, and wanted to work with him." Usmonov is from Tajikistan and Min from Korea, but Min says he is "more interested in the way the people who make up a country mix together than in differences of nationality." "I was aiming to make a warm, gentle film that examined just how far an ordinary person could express his or her will." One question ranged as far as to ask about the film's music, a score by Satyajit Ray that helps give the film its soft, relaxed feel. "After we finished shooting, we tried out various scores, but Ray's music was the best. His widow was very kind in letting us use it." And one member of the audience pointed out connections between the film and Ray's Pather Panchali (1955). A film in which "the staff and the villagers who appear in the film are all co-directors," The Flight of the Bee is an homage to this late Indian master filmmaker.