Shadows on the Wall

Harvest

dir Athina Rachel Tsangari
scr Joslyn Barnes, Athina Rachel Tsangari
prd Joslyn Barnes, Marie-Elena Dyche, Viola Fugen, Rebecca O'Brien, Michael Weber
with Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, Rosy McEwen, Arinze Kene, Thalissa Teixeira, Frank Dillane, Gary Maitland, Noor Dillan-Night, Emma Hindle, Neil Leiper, Gordon Brown, Maya Bonniwell
release US Sep.24 nyff,
UK 18.Jul.25
24/UK 2h11

VENICE FILM FEST
TORONTO FILM FEST

Is it streaming?

Like a vintage British folk horror movie, this offbeat thriller is actually a social drama. It's also indulgently muddy and nasty, with rather a lot of ponderous dialog and messy violence. That said, the actors capture the unspoken yearnings of their characters. So while there isn't anyone on-screen we can identify with, watching the story unfold is at least intriguing. Especially as it confronts the impact of progress.

An isolated community in Scotland has never bothered to name itself or the place where they live. Master Kent (Melling) lives in the manor house, overseeing the sheep-sheering, farming and fishing that sustains them. His closest friend is Walter (Jones), who watches carefully as everyone tries to figure out who started a fire in the barn. Perhaps it's connected to three strangers (Teixeira, Maitland and Dillan-Night), who are punished for being interlopers. Meanwhile, Walter is fascinated by another newcomer, Quill (Kene), a mapmaker Kent brought in to document the area for his landowner cousin (Dillane).

Anachronisms deliberately make it impossible to work out the time period, while the grainy film stock hints that this is happening in some alternate reality. The story certainly has the wider approach of a parable, watching a community over the course of a week during which they go from tight-knit and fiercely protective to splintered and lost, simply because they have an encounter with knowledge that's beyond them. And outsiders use this to their advantage.

Jones' Walt provides voiceover narrative observations, but he remains opaque and difficult to like as he fails to do what he knows he should. It doesn't help that he trudges everywhere with a blanket over his shoulders, blankly dragging it through the mud. His romance with McEwen's steely Kitty never catches spark. His intriguingly close bond with the soulful Melling's likeably hapless Kent is also undercooked, while his friendship with the wonderfully bright-eyed Kene's artist is more engaging.

As the story drags on, scene after scene feels staged simply as an oddity, rather than to add meaning to the story. The landscape and settings are shot from angles that leave them feeling eerily artificial, while the drapery-style costumes are more distracting than telling. Thankfully, there are moments that spring vividly to life, such as Maitland's verbal abuse while his character is being pilloried, or Dillane's smiling swagger as he swoops in to take control. But even these roles feel unfinished, never quite taking us anywhere over a very long running time.

themes, language, violence, sexuality 18.Jun.25

R E A D E R R E V I E W S

Still waiting for your comments ... don't be shy.