Harvest

Ein Dorf verschwindet. Doch wer trägt die Schuld am Untergang der mittelalterlichen Gemeinschaft, die in ein paar versprengten Steinhäusern ihr karges Dasein findet? Ist es der Außenseiter Walter, der sich als Freund des Gutsherrn den Bauern angeschlossen hat? Ist es der durchs Land reisende Kartenmaler? Oder sind es doch die Fremden, die nach dem Brand der Scheune an den Pranger gestellt werden? Tsangaris erster englischsprachiger Film nach dem gleichnamigen Bestseller von Jim Crace, gedreht auf grobkörnigem 16mm-Material, ist ein in grandiosen Bildern gemalter Abgesang: Die pastorale Idylle wird zur puren Halluzination. (Michael Pekler) 

At one point in the gritty folk-fable HARVEST, Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landy Jones), a farmer and former manservant to the lord of an agricultural collective (Henry Melling), describes his community as “circle people”. In other words, their way of life stands against a linear view of history and capitalism’s relentless quantification of value. Thirsk’s people—as the film shows through a fiery portent and the eventual arrival of snivelling aristocrats aiming to modernise (i.e. extract wealth from) their lands—will soon be surplus to requirement. Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari (ATTENBERG) and shot in grainy 16mm by cinematographer Sean Price Williams, this eerie allegorical drama immerses the viewer in the pagan traditions of a pre-industrial English village, which is not only being threatened from the outside but also rotting from the inside; its xenophobic inhabitants are quick to violently persecute a trio of innocent visitors. A feat of worldbuilding smeared with mud, semen and grass stains, HARVEST is a hypnotic portrait of cultural decay and the first English-language feature from one of Greece’s most audacious filmmakers. (Beatrice Loayza)

Athina Rachel Tsangari: THE SLOW BUSINESS OF GOING (2000),  ATTENBERG (2010), THE CAPSULE (2012), CHEVALIER (2015)