User Reviews

What makes this different from other gay love stories is the setting: its natural depiction of rural life with scenes of farm school operations and the people behind it. Same sex love do exist even in these places.

Another example of cinema-verite technique in filmmaking, quite subtle in style. Yes, the film is slow paced, but it is never boring. The attraction between the two apprentices is naturally developed. The long glances and yearning were only shown halfway thru the film and when it happens, it makes their love story more believable and satisfying.

Great natural acting from by the two leads throughout. I especially like the piano interludes which play at the right moments.

If you have the patience and allow yourself time to understand their story, then you might find it fulfilling as I did..

(( NOTE: 1-STAR added for high degree of location / setting authenticity which was captured ON FILM. Otherwise, Story...Acting...Camera Work would have been rated 5-STARS ))

Described at many DVD sales sites as more of a Gay Romance....here at IMDb.com it is labeled a Drama. Neither of these descriptions is "mostly" correct....and for why, read on.

In the Director's words, this is a film he calls "The Farm" (perhaps being titled "Harvest" is more marketable for American distribution). Also in Benjamin Cantu's own words, this is more a "Documentary" (at least, a semi-one), rather than a film falling completely in either of the 2 Genres mentioned above. Now, in order for you to relate more easily to this film and its location, think of it as being a take off on the United State's "F"uture "F"armers of "A"merica. ....BUT, here in this film, it is a story taking place on the far outskirts of Berlin, in an agricultural school established to intern / train the "FFG". Note that farm life and activities are quite realistically portrayed, right down to the actual use of farm machinery and the handling of animals (this is a working farm). Yes, there is a "side story" in which we are given scenes of the developing "relationship" between 2 young, male trainees (the only professional actors in this film; the many other persons you see being actual agricultural school students and their instructors).

As for my general impression of the storyline, I find it one which transports us into a deeply agricultural environment....BUT does so somewhat "aimlessly". There are "Shifts" in plot directions and actions being shown us which seem to occur without meaning (aimlessness also exists within that "personal relationship" we are waiting to see develop). Dialog, by the writer / director's own admission, is often unscripted or improvisational, and there is much reliance upon "looks" and "glances" to get a point....or a feeling across to us.

And as for what we are all waiting to see occur (due to the "romantic sales pitch" often given this movie), physical contact between the 2 leads is very slow in coming....and amounts to nothing other than upper body contact. Kissing scenes are particularly mishandled, due to poor camera angles and even worse use of lighting. Still, both of the Straight actors playing characters "Marko and Jakob", are fairly adept at portraying the qualms of "coming out" and facing up to a first affair. Kai-Michael Müller, as "Jakob", is particularly able at expressing such feelings. Lukas Steltner's "Marko", who we follow from film's beginning, is more stoic in nature (due likely to his character's more "iffy" family background).

At best, I see this as an "intermittently Gay" film, which I will NOT be keeping in my Film Library for this Genre.

****

"Stadt Land Fluss" is a German film from almost five years ago that runs for clearly under 90 minutes. It won an award at the German film festival here in Berlin in 2011, but sadly, while watching this I had to realize that all the popularity and acclaim this film received was really only because of the topic and not because it's a great, or even good, movie. The story is basically about a young man who stops his work as a banker apprentice and starts working on a farm. There he falls in love with another (male) farm worker and the two are facing the usual. Homophobia, doubts about sexuality, temptation by women, escape fantasies etc. There is nothing in here that was not included in other movies about this issue either. Or I should maybe say short films as gays are much more common in there than in the full feature film genre.

The writer and director is Benjamin Cantu and judging from his work here I cannot say I am really sad that he has not worked on another film since 2011. The two lead actors Steltner and Müller aren't much better really and neither is having a career right now. The only one I kinda liked was the actress who played the woman working in the administration. He felt authentic and real and definitely elevated an otherwise entirely forgettable film. Nothing interesting happens is usually not a valid criticism, but it does apply if both character are so boring that you just cannot create a connection with them or care in the slightest about who they are and what they are doing. Really nothing of quality to watch here. The only thing I can approve of is that this film did not run for 100 or more minutes with the very little story it had to tell us. Not recommended.

I quote this movie as an example to other films. There are other movies that maybe more visually appealing than this one, but in fact are much much worse than the Harvest.

From the cinematographic point of view this movie is so wonderful! The character development, the whole underlying subtlety of their relationships, setting the scene, the dialogues etc everything is so beautifully done in this movie.

You can show this movie in your cinema classes to portray the development of characters and love relationships.

Too bad very few people see it the real value of this movie.

Although it takes some time for the characters to develop their plot, I found it beautiful the they slowly built a connection. Most of that connection moments are not spoken but rather felt by look or simple gestures.

The last scene is so pure and simple and yet so romantic and full of passion.

This is a conscious echo of the film I was reminded most while watching "The Harvest" (or, more, "The farm" as it is closer one supposes, to the non-profitable title in German), that is "That old dream that bounces" by Alain Guiraudie, that takes place in a factory ready to close doors, and between two men, in a manner that is a bizarre combo of french, Racine classicism and Godard-inspired muted and yet operatic class activism. One also supposes that this is so far from "Harvest"'s tone. Yet one could appreciate the contrast, in just this manner: while that old dream bounces in the earlier - that is Guiraudie's - film, one wonders what does the dream do in the "Farm". For the final shot tells me that this is a dream, or questions one: the two boys, after some kind of rupture after the rapture, embrace in the somewhat phobic (at least for one of them) environment of the farm they work and study at, in a defying and implausible manner, as if the shared (?) news of the phobic one's success at getting his diploma, dispelled the unnamed barrier between them.

At various points the woman that teaches and advises the farm's students gives straightforward chunks of Saxon class-conscious practicality, if not clear and even-minded political guidance. This, along with cinema-verite explorations of agricultural "process" (as in the old communist jargon), gives an account - if you excuse the pun - of a new, yet nebulous political sensibility. The final shot, instead of resuming or opening up or pinpointing the unnamed object/intersection of the communal and the amorous, makes a leap that obfuscates the imaginary support. It neither convinces that the boys can truly embrace so, nor that we should view this as what in the situation going beforehand is improbable as quilting point. Is this the point? To confront us with the obfuscation of the fantasmatic scenario? This makes me wonder. The pastoral/social realist commitment of the greatest part of the film, makes it a dream that does not bounce, but simply works, where work has an utilitarian muteness. Simply? But a dream is the ideal worker.