In her 2024 film Harvest, director Athina Rachel Tsangari has crafted a distinctive and atmospheric period piece that defies easy categorisation. Infused with elements of folk horror, it chronicles the irrevocable transformation of a rural Scottish village, led by an ensemble cast featuring Caleb Landry Jones. The narrative unfolds over seven hallucinatory days, capturing a community on the brink of profound and unsettling change.
Set in a nameless village in an undefined era, the story centres on the disruption of a traditional agrarian way of life. The plot follows two childhood friends, the townsman-turned-farmer Walter Thirsk, played by Landry Jones, and the local landowner Master Kent, portrayed by Harry Melling. Together, they witness their idyllic community face seismic economic turmoil and the arrival of unexpected invaders from the outside world. These events introduce the “trauma of modernity” and the perceived threat of the outsider, forcing the villagers to confront a potentially damaging new reality.
Adapted from the Booker Prize-nominated novel by Jim Crace, Tsangari’s film is a deliberate examination of a universal story of land loss. The director views the film as a form of reckoning, posing questions about historical actions and our collective future. She frames the story within a “threshold realm,” tracing the initial ruptures of the industrial age. This change is embodied by three archetypes who disrupt the community: a map-maker, people on the move, and a company man. Tsangari intentionally avoids creating heroes, focusing instead on “imperfect, ordinary folks” and imagining the film as a daguerreotype or a Polaroid slowly being exposed to twilight.
Ultimately, Harvest is a spellbinding and eerie exploration of what happens when a society’s foundations are challenged by external forces. Supported by a cast that includes Rosy McEwen, Arinzé Kene, Thalissa Teixeira, and Frank Dillane, the film blends its textured storytelling with a philosophical inquiry into how communities are defined and who gets to decide their fate. It is a story steeped in superstition and atmosphere, promising a unique and thought-provoking cinematic folk horror journey.
In German theatres now, and in the UK, Ireland, Mexico, and Chile on July 18. Streaming August 8 in the UK, Ireland, Latin America and more. A MUBI Release.