HARVEST

In a world of simple, instant entertainment that fulfills dreams, we turn instead to the primal, mystical rites of Athina Rachel Tsangari’s latest film. The Greek filmmaker and long-time collaborator of Yorgos Lanthimos takes on an adaptation of Jim Crace’s award-winning British novel, a tale where stark realism meets lyrical beauty, and where ruthless modernity clashes with humanity’s deep bond with nature and community. HARVEST paints a haunting portrait of an unnamed English village, brought vividly to life by a superb ensemble cast led by Caleb Landry Jones (Léon director Luc Besson’s new muse).

Tsangari’s film delves into a tightly woven rural society, free from rigid hierarchies and sustained by its connection to the land. It’s a self-sufficient community, unburdened by the feudal constraints of its time, living in delicate harmony with nature. Outsiders, however, are seen as intruders - threats to this fragile balance -  while those looking in from beyond regard the villagers’ customs with suspicion or disdain.

The settlement is overseen by Charles Kent (Harry Melling), assisted by Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landry Jones), once childhood friends, now bound by a complex master-servant relationship that has evolved into a deep mutual dependence. Together, their openness allows them to share fully in the village’s rituals and communal life. But this fragile order begins to unravel with the arrival of strangers, and later, of Edmund Jordan (Frank Dillane, also seen in URCHIN from the First Things First section), the estate’s rightful yet ruthlessly progressive heir.

Jordan views the village as a “beggar’s ruin”, determined to transform it into a “profitable settlement” by drawing new boundaries and exploiting the land’s natural wealth. As trust between Kent, Thirsk and their people erodes, suspicion festers. Misunderstandings escalate, and neighbour turns against neighbour.

Tsangari’s exquisite eye for composition and texture captures the rhythms of a community deeply rooted in its environment. Each frame feels painterly - a tapestry of light, soil and faces shaped by the wind. Yet beneath its beauty lies a sharp social undercurrent: a study of prejudice, particularly against women labelled as “witches”, and a meditation on privilege, on the moral responsibility not to stand idle in the face of so-called progress that corrodes the very soul of a place. HARVEST is a poetic, unsettling, and profoundly human vision. A lament for what is lost when modernity forgets its roots.

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Text: Michał Sołtysek

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