Introducing The Secret Life of Bees

03 December 2008

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The Secret Life of Bees is the latest movie from direct Gina Prince Blythewood as she adapts the popular Sue Monk Kidd novel.

The book and film follows young girl Lily who flees from her abusive father and memories with an employee of her father's only to be taken in by the Boatwright Sisters.

Despite the strong cast of Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson tit took the director six years to get the project off the ground.

Lily Owens - Dakota Fanning

Lily, a lonely teenager haunted by the guilt of her role in the accidental shooting death of her mother, escapes the peach farm owned by her embittered and widowed father (Paul Bettany), who shows her neither kindness nor compassion.

Fanning portrays a teenager struggling with typical pubescent angst, but her challenges are compounded by her feelings of self-loathing and sorrow, spurred on by the death of her mother.

The Secret Life of Bees follows this young girl as she tries to discover if she is lovable as she dreams of becoming a writer. But as an apprentice beekeeper her relationship with the Boatwright sisters deepens and she realises that she has found her true home.

Rosaleen Daise - Jennifer Hudson

Rosaleen, an employee of Lily's father T.Ray,also has her own struggles as she desperately wants to be acknowledged as a human being and was beaten and jailed for trying to register to vote.

She becomes Lily's caretaker and the pair run away and make it to the town called Tiburon and seek refuge at the house of the Boatwright sisters.

August Boatwright - Queen Latifah

August Boatwright is a loving matriarch who nurtures both her younger sisters and the two lost souls who come to her house in need of love/

Lily is immediately taken under the wing of August as her new beekeeping apprentice. There she is given a comfortable place to explore and, for the first time in her life, just be.

Surrounded by the unexpected comforts, grace and deep rooted spirituality Lily (Fanning) encounters in the Boatwright home, she forms a maternal bond with each of these women whose unique and special gifts help reconcile the loss of her mother.

May Boatwright - Sophie Okonedo and June Boatwright - Alicia Keys

May's heart has been broken since her twin sister�s death years earlier. Her pain runs so deep, her sisters dedicated a prayer wall in the woods to their late sister, much like the �Wailing Wall� in Jerusalem.

In contrast to her childlike sister June is a fiercely independent music teacher, who teaches Cello, and never lowers her shield of pride for anyone, even for the man who adores her.