Harvest [Stadt Land Fluss] ***½ (2011, Lukas Steltner, Kai Michael Müller) – Classic Movie Review 12,348

Benjamin Cantu’s 2011 German LGBT romantic drama film Harvest [Stadt Land Fluss] is a sweet and simple but serious-minded boy meets boy story, set on an austere apprentice farming community, with loads of atmosphere and much smouldering passion.

Writer-director Benjamin Cantu’s commendable 2011 German LGBT romantic drama film Harvest [Stadt Land Fluss] is a sweet, simple and straightforward but serious minded boy meets boy story, set on an austere German apprentice farming community, with loads and loads of atmosphere, and much smouldering passion.

Lukas Steltner and Kai Michael Müller play young apprentices Marco and Jacob, working on an agricultural complex south of Berlin, who pile on the meaningful looks as their tenuous relationship works its way to resolution. Both guys are troubled and lost in life, and of course going to be found, as they find each other. This is the key to their whole future.

There is plenty of detail and always work to be done, but little very exciting or notable happens and the pace is fairly sedate. So the film does takes its time, but eventually it really gets there. It has much to say about the old values of the rural economy and gets great value out of the agricultural environment. These ‘old values’ are the background for the relationship of Marco and Jacob, which would then probably represent the progressive ‘new values’ of the German way of life.

Marco is nervous of proceeding with his feelings for Jacob, worrying about how it would appear (though Jacob is the go-getter of the two) but the duo meet no opposition, and no homophobia, and the film is not about coming out, it’s just a film about two guys. The only conflict is internal, which is the biggest battle. Underwhelming dramatically though it may be, it stays involving and ends strongly and well. Lukas Steltner and Kai Michael Müller are great, just right, pulling you onto their side, and the film’s side, making you care about their love story.

The film is appealing and likeable, actually very appealing and very likeable, and so are the actors. If it recalls the later 2017 God’s Own Country, then good.

The German title Stadt, Land, Fluss is a popular trivia game in Germany from the three base categories (city, country, river) necessarily included in the game.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,348

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