Film 'Harvest' full of firsts and challenges for Greek director

Record ID: 1839699

  • Title: Film 'Harvest' full of firsts and challenges for Greek director
  • Date: 6th September 2024
  • Summary: VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 4, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI, SAYING: "And it was also during torrential rain. (AUDIO OF LANDRY JONES LAUGHING) It was taking me literally more time, we wasted lots of time because (AUDIO OF LANDRY JONES SAYING: 'Because of me"), because of you always, just to be able to walk through the mud, to go talk
  • Embargoed: 20th September 2024 13:29
  • Keywords: Athina Tsangari Caleb Landry Jones Golden Lion Harvest Harvest film Harvest movie Venice Film Festival films in Venice
  • Location: VENICE, ITALY / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • City: VENICE, ITALY / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA009180705092024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari says she ventured into "completely new territory" with her Scotland-set period film "Harvest".
    Based on Jim Crace's 2013 Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name, "Harvest" depicts the destruction of an unnamed village and its community of residents.
    "Attenberg" and "Chevalier" director Tsangari said she was approached by the film's producers to make the English-language feature.
    "This is the first time that the project was not originated by me and it was not produced by me. So it's all like completely new territory, which I absolutely loved," she said.
    The film stars Caleb Landry Jones as Walter Thirsk, an outsider who has settled into the village after marrying one of the local women and stayed following her death. As the village's future comes under threat over the harvesting period, Thirsk struggles to take action.
    Jones said the film's cinematographer Sean Price Williams sent him the script, urging him to take the part. But it was meeting Tsangari at his home in Los Angeles that convinced him to embark on the project.
    "This was some that I'd been searching for in a kind of way. Since I come out to Los Angeles to make movies, I've been wanting to make movies of this kind, the kind that she is making," he said.
    "Athina felt like she was someone that you could trust, someone that was going to fight with every bone, every part of her body to make the film the way she saw and the way she wanted," he added.
    And fight she did, Tsangari said, describing a challenging shoot that involved a limited budget, lack of time and torrential rain.
    "It was a very ambitious film for the means that we had. We lost a bunch of money and lots of money, actually, about three weeks before we started shooting, while we were already building the set," she said.
    "It was the most challenging thing, and I'm so used to work with very little money because I'm a Greek filmmaker and I actually love the challenge and I love adapting," she said, adding: "I just wish I had more time."
    "Harvest" is one of 21 movies competing for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, which will be awarded on September 7.
    (Production: Cristiano Corvino, Hanna Rantala, Malgorzata Wojtunik)
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