Words may define us…

But it’s love that connects us…

Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) can spell words, lots of words, with an effortlessness and understanding that surprises everyone around her, especially her family.

Bee Season, directed by David Siegel and Scott McGehee, is the kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family whose picture-perfect surface conceals an underlying world of secret turmoil and heartache.

As Eliza trains for the pressure-packed National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C, her family begins to fall apart. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a religious studies professor, sees something transcendent in Eliza’s magical gift, and begins to teach her the secrets of Kabbalah.

Her mother Miriam (Juliette Binoche) begins to unravel emotionally, finding Eliza and Saul’s shared focus a painful reminder of the loss of her own parents, who died when she was young. Eliza’s older brother Aaron (Max Minghella), once his father’s favourite, rebels, making a connection with a beautiful Hare Krishna (Kate Bosworth).

As her family disintegrates before her young eyes, it’s up to Eliza to put the broken pieces of their world back together again through an unexpected act of love.

Bee Season is based on the celebrated novel by Myla Goldberg.