Watch the trailer for stunning Scottish drama Harvest
The Scottish landscape has rarely looked more sumptuous on screen than in Athina Rachel Tsangari's woozy folk western Harvest; here's the film's first trailer ahead of its cinema release in July
Over the years, plenty of great filmmakers from all over the world have come to Scotland to capture the majesty of our lochs, hills and glens on screen, from Powell and Pressburger to Nicolas Winding Refn, Justin Kurzel to Bertrand Tavernier. But few have better captured the earthy beauty of Scotland’s landscapes than Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari in her trippy Scottish folk western Harvest. You can see for yourself when Harvest is released in cinemas on 18 July by MUBI, and you can get a flavour of Tsangari’s visually sumptuous film by taking a look at its first trailer, which arrives online today. Watch in the player above or on YouTube.
Based on Jim Crace’s 2013 novel of the same name, Harvest centres on soulful farmer Walter (Caleb Landry-Jones) who lives in a small agrarian community in some unspecified time and place (the film was shot on location near Oban). It’s a remote village with unusual customs and hierarchies, but over seven days, its way of life will be irrevocably changed as various outsiders descend on the community.
Tsangari’s film is rich in woozy atmosphere and period detail, and immerses audiences in this eccentric village’s strange rituals and rhythms. It’s her first film in English, but it’s of a piece with the offbeat films she made in her home nation, like Attenberg, Chevalier and Dogtooth (she co-wrote the latter). Like those entries in the Greek Weird Wave, Harvest is concerned with an insular community that goes through a massive upheaval.
Behind the camera is celebrated American cinematographer Sean Price Williams, and his stunning photography is suitably rustic as it poignantly observes a disappearing way of life as modernisation and capitalism sweep in to change these people forever. The film is also notable for another fantastic turn from former Harry Potter star Harry Melling (he was Dudley Dursley, Harry's spoiled cousin). He plays the benevolent laird who’s been running the village as a sort of proto-hippy commune and finds himself completely out of depth when his avaricious relative comes to town to turn his inheritance into a cash cow.
Harvest is released in UK and Ireland on 18 Jul by MUBI and streams on MUBI from 8 Aug