Caleb Landry Jones

Harry Melling

Rosy McEwen

Arinzé Kene

Thalissa Teixeira

Frank Dillane

Stephen McMillan

Mitchell Robertson

Grace Jabbari

Gordon Brown

Neil Leiper

Emma Hindle

Gary Maitland

Noor Dillan-Night

Antonia Quirke

Logan Buchanan

Rory Barraclough

Lupi Moll

Paul Fegan

Holly Blakey

Maya Bonniwell

Gregor Warnock

Jack Mackay

Chester Hayes

Leonie Teal Charlton

Tom Bonniwell

Deirdre Henderson

Ruby Isla Heritage Crab

Oran Charlton

Andrew MacKeand

William Alexander

Nicola Moll

Edith Elliott

Athina Rachel Tsangari

Viola Fügen

Jim Crace

Joslyn Barnes

Rebecca O'Brien

Michael Weber

Marie-Elena Dyche

Sean Price Williams

Christos V. Konstantakopoulos

Joe Simpson

Matthew E. Chausse

Kyle Stroud

Eva Yates

Jason Ropell

Steven Little

Pascal Caucheteux

John Jencks

Grégoire Sorlat

Claudia Yusef

Efe Çakarel

Simon Williams

Jonathan Bross

Lorenza Veronica

Kirsty Halliday

Matthew Johnson

Ian Hassett

Nicolas Becker

Nico Leunen

Anita Brolly

Nathan Parker

Olivier Père

David Bowtle-McMillan

Andrea Ferrara

Shaheen Baig

Matt Fraser

Imogen Toner

Lisa McConville

Alison Perers

Paula Rebanks

Eddie Mcgowan

Tom Paine

Matt Da Silva

Paul Heasman

Drama

Harvest

Louverture Films

Haos Film

The Match Factory

Why Not Productions

Sixteen Films

Meraki Films

BBC Film

ARTE France Cinéma

Screen Scotland

Cyprus

Germany

Greece

United Kingdom

United States of America

France

CinemaSerf

Hmmm. As a Scotsman, I think this is one of those films that I’m supposed to like - it has a solid cast and an interesting concept underpinning it - but I ended up distinctly underwhelmed by the lacklustre feel of the whole thing. An agrarian, Scots, community awaken one morning to find that one of the barns of the laird “Kent” (Harry Melling) has been damaged by fire. As if that wasn’t curious enough, there is also some smoke billowing from the opposite end of their village where some newcomers have settled for the night. Suspicions run riot, but before the people do likewise “Walt” (Caleb Landry Jones) attempts to see just what happened and two of the visitors end up in the stocks. Meantime, the villagers are also a little wary of “Quill” (Arinzé Kane) who not only dresses strangely but has been tasked by their boss with mapping out his estate to increase productivity. As the story unravels, we discern that “Kent” and “Walt” are old friends but that tragedy has impacted on both of their lives rendering them shadows of their former selves. Things come to an head when the enigmatic “Jordan” (Frank Dillane) arrives and claims ownership of the entire village and demands that everyone shift so he can rear more sheep. Where are they to go? Now some emphasis is made on the local and sometimes quite earthy dialect used here, but sadly the audio mixing is frankly rather poor and so half the time it’s quite difficult to hear what dialogue there is - and that’s not great for a drama that focuses substantially on characters and their conversations. As the actual plot itself slowly develops, we are presented with a series of mixed historical messages that contrive to make points that aren’t really borne out by events or circumstances we can actually see, and as we move, lethargically, towards an inconclusive conclusion I found that not only was I confused, but I was also surprisingly disinterested by the whole affair. Neither CLJ nor Melling really impose themselves, though that’s as much to do with their rather weak personas, and the internecine and superstitious behaviour of the population seemed a little too conveniently stereotypical of some things Scottish or English or British or even Brazilian! It does have a very authentic production design to it and effort has clearly gone into recreating a community run by a landed gentry - though, curiously, without any significant religious figure - who lived a completely different life from his serfs. I haven’t read the book upon which this is based, but can guess that the politics behind the highland clearances might inspire somewhere here. Again, though, that aspect is as undercooked at the rest of this meandering effort. I’ve watched it twice now but feel I’ve got all I’m going to get from something that just feels incomplete and slightly frustrating.