The local folk are naturally suspicious of outsiders, and after a\u00a0barn is set on fire, they capture a\u00a0trio of strangers, stringing the men up in the stocks and cutting off the hair of the woman, who flees into the surrounding forest. Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landry Jones) looks on with his piercing blue eyes; he\u2019s a\u00a0man of few words, but nothing much escapes his gaze. Walter knows the lands like the back of his hand, having lived there his whole life, but not always among the peasants who work the land. Once the direct employee of the benevolent but meek Master Kent (Harry Melling), Walter gave up his comfortable life when he fell in love and chose to work the land with his wife, until she passed away, leaving him alone and melancholy. His joy comes now from the natural world; in the film\u2019s gorgeous opening sequence, he is seen roaming the wild fields, pausing to gently admire a\u00a0butterfly upon his\u00a0hand.<\/p>\n
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Walter favours a\u00a0simple life, but he is decidedly not a\u00a0simple man; when Kent introduces him to the talented mapmaker Philip Earle (Arinz\u00e9 Kene) who is to complete a\u00a0surveyance of the land, Walter regards him with a\u00a0degree of suspicion. He is well aware that change need not be for the better, and despite how charming Earle is, immediately enamoured of the beauty of the countryside, Walt is right to be suspicious. Several days later, Kent\u2019s decidedly less agreeable kinsman Edmund Jordan (Frank Dillane) arrives with grand plans to turn the land into sheep pastures, signalling the end of Walt\u2019s rural idyll, and the beginning of rising tensions between the serfs and the gentry.<\/p>\n
The most impressive aspect of Harvest<\/i> is Sean Price Williams\u2019 stunning cinematography, which does justice to the rugged beauty of the Scottish coast, capturing every blade of grass and patch of claggy mud in arresting detail. Williams, a\u00a0mainstay of the hallowed New York indie scene, is every bit as skilled at capturing the blazing sunset of 18<\/span>th<\/sup>-century Scotland as he is the gritty streets of the Big Apple, and great thought has been put into the sensory aspects of Harvest<\/i>, from its sound design that emphasises the howling wind, the lazy buzz of bountiful insects and, of course, the jubilant celebrations that come with the event which gives the film its\u00a0name.<\/p>\nIn 2023<\/span>\u2019s Venice Film Festival, Landry Jones debuted his Scottish accent, remaining \u200b\u201c<\/span>in character\u201d throughout the press conference for Luc Besson\u2019s Dogman<\/i>. The dedication has mostly paid off, although he does sometimes slide towards Irish \u2013 Walt is a\u00a0softer character than he typically gets to play, an almost monastic figure as he endures both the ire of his peers and the sneering new overseer, seemingly with no way out of his difficult lot in life. Walt\u2019s persistent inaction and hesitation indicate his reluctance to lead, and the man is most comfortable when roaming the wilderness, but his community looks to him for leadership and Edmund Jordan expects him to toe the\u00a0line.<\/p>\nPerhaps the inferno which opens the film is an omen, the black smoke billowing into the sky like a\u00a0signal fire, a\u00a0warning of carnage yet to come. The kinship that develops between Philip Earle and Walt is the core of the film and perhaps its most tragic element, as they are good men placed in unfortunate positions. Yet sometimes the film\u2019s subtlety is obfuscating, and Harvest<\/i> could delve more into the almost instantaneous racism Earle faces as a\u00a0Black man in an all-white community \u2013 his character suffers the most, and the film doesn\u2019t have much interest in interrogating how systematic racism has its roots in early capitalism.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a\u00a0tragic film, but never a\u00a0melodramatic one \u2013 tensions build slowly, and although the sense of impending collapse is present from the start, Tsangari\u2019s sharp sensibilities compensate for any predictability, with the key performances of Landry Jones, Kene and Melling standing out (Melling, it must be said, it\u2019s perhaps England\u2019s greatest hope for the future of character acting, always a\u00a0delight when he turns up in a\u00a0part) and providing Harvest<\/i>\u200b\u2019<\/span>s emotional heft. Those hoping for the satire of Chevalier<\/i> or absurdism of Attenberg<\/i> might be surprised by the solemn straight-forwardness of Harvest<\/i>, but it\u2019s a\u00a0remarkably compelling work (and even sometimes a\u00a0funny one!) that mourns a\u00a0land lost, crushed underfoot by rot that masquerades as progress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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