Harvest (18)
Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
★★★

THE demise of traditional agricultural farming, along with the trauma of modernity and the looming threat of the outsider, are explored in this surreal drama about an idyllic rural Scottish village with no name which ends up fighting for its survival. 

Based on Jim Crace’s Booker Prize-nominated novel and adapted for the big screen by Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari and Joslyn Barnes, it is set over seven hallucinatory days in an undefined era (but clearly a period piece) in this mysterious rural community which is rocked by seismic economic turmoil. Suspicion and blame immediately falls on any outsiders. 

When a barn catches fire, the villagers accuse three strangers who are passing by rather than finding the real culprits within their own number. The two men are put into the stocks, and the woman has her hair shorn off in front of the whole village in a violent and humiliating act. 

The film follows townsman turned farmer Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landry Jones) and his childhood friend and local landowner Master Kent (Harry Melling), who believes he is one of the people but isn’t, as his wife’s cousin’s arrival clearly demonstrates. Master Jordan (Frank Dillane) rides into town to take possession of Kent’s lands, and the latter does nothing to protect the villagers or their livelihoods. 

The film thus explores the impact of the enclosure act, privatising common land, as well as provincial xenophobia as is directed towards the map-maker Quill (Arinze Kene) who arrives to redraw the boundaries of the area and sparks distrust among the locals. This is the first sign that things are awry. 

Shot in western Scotland and driven by an assembly of anti-heroes, Harvest is equally inspired by Greek tragedy and 1970s cinema. For there are no heroes in this film, just ordinary and imperfect folk being abused and downtrodden by wealthy landowners, and having their lives shattered by change. It is driven by a standout performance by Texan Landry Jones, who does an impeccable Scottish accent, and Melling who is equally impressive as a deluded landowner. 

Harvest is also a story steeped in folk horror, but its psychedelic, mushroom-infused moments border on the pretentious, and it felt overly long. Less would certainly have been more and resulted in a more impactful and haunting drama.

In cinemas July 18 and on Mubi from August 8