In a sleepy village in the Basque Country, a sculptor named Ane and her three children arrive at her mother Lita's home for summer vacation. Ane and her mother's relationship is strained: Lita disapproves of her daughter's frayed marriage, her career as an artist, and the way she parents her children, especially the eight-year-old, nicknamed Coco. The child’s only respite lies in the hills, where Aunt Lourdes tends to the family's beekeeping farm. Among the peaceful humming of bees and Lourdes' open-minded guardianship, Coco slowly begins to confide in family and friends about her body discomfort, eventually voicing a desire to be treated as a girl. As Coco explores her developing identity, the family must learn to accept the child as she is.

Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s assured debut feature is a wonderfully sensitive work carried by the Berlinale Silver Bear winning lead performance of newcomer Sofía Otero. An authentic and heart-wrenching story of transition, 20,000 SPECIES OF BEES is "a landmark in the filmic discussion of gender, sexuality, and identity." (The Film Verdict).