Bee Season

Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a respected university professor, dotes on her talented elder brother Aaron (Max Minghella). Her scientist mother, Miriam (Juliette Binoche), seems consumed by her career. When a spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazes everyone by winning. Her newfound gift garners an invitation not only to the national competition, but entry into the world of words and Jewish mysticism that have so long captivated her father's imagination.

But Eliza's unexpected success hurls the Naumann family dynamic into a tailspin. Long-held secrets emerge and she is forced to depend upon her own divination to hold the family together.

Bee Season is based on the best-selling Myla Goldberg novel of the same name.

Synopsis

11 year old Eliza Naumann comes from an odd family they all divert their emotional frustrations into secret channels. When Eliza unexpectedly begins winning spelling bees what had been a stable dynamic within the family becomes disrupted long held secrets emerge and a latent spiritual yearning is awakened in her withdrawn father Saul and compulsive mother Miriam. As Eliza moves closer and closer to the national spelling bee the Naumann family finds itself in a spiral of surprising discovery and jarring uncertainty.