What does ‘Bugonia’ mean? Film’s writer breaks it down

The writer of Bugonia has broken down what the film’s “ambiguous” title really means.

Speaking to The Independent at the London Film Festival on Friday (10 October), Will Tracy dived into the meaning of Bugonia — an ancient Greek belief that bees were spontaneously generated from a cow's carcass.

Tracy, who also wrote The Menu and episodes of Succession, said: “ You could take that as a metaphor for contemporary American life or human civilisation. If you wish that there might be some, some opportunity that could rise from the ashes of something that's quite corrupt.”

He said that whilst that is “one way to look at it”, he simply liked how strange the word sounds. Describing it as sounding like an alien, insect, flower, illness and location all at the same time,

Tracy explained: “I think the Non-specificity was also kind of attractive.”