The Walleye Magazine

Harvest (2011)

This little-known, quiet, coming-of-age story, written and directed by Benjamin Cantu, opens with a giant stuttering water sprinkler, one of those industrial kinds you see in farm fields. This is late summer on a small industrial farm in rural Germany. Fall is coming and the harvest is beginning to happen. Marco (Lukas Steltner) and Jakob (Kai Michael Müller) are two young farm interns, learning what farming is all about. This means basically doing all the work, together with various farmhands.

The plot is slim. Cinematographer Alexander Gheorghiu lets us observe natural details: late- season alfalfa blooming, aspects of communal living, rolling clouds, baling hay, bicycling down a country road, swimming after work in a murky lake, along with close-ups of plain physical activities and almost all natural sounds. Most of this is without dialogue, but we can tell from glances that turn into stares something is developing for Marco and Jakob. The film has a meditative style that slides into its affection and then hesitantly, into love that eventually lingers. This is about as far removed as cinematically possible from Legends of

the Fall. Harvest is a refreshingly slow ride ending in genuine embrace.

Film Theatre

en-ca

2021-09-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thewalleye.pressreader.com/article/283579518523043

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