The Harvesters

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1:38

The Harvesters

2019

1h 46m

Drama

LGBTQ+

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

91%

Tomatometer

11 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

A young man competes for his mother's love when she welcomes a hardened street orphan into their home in South Africa.

Gary Goldstein

Los Angeles Times

09/26/2019

This darkly powerful psychodrama finds fear and tension in its hermetic world of rural farming and religious immersion amid the almost contradictory beauty of its sprawling South African locale.

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Boyd van Hoeij

The Hollywood Reporter

05/16/2018

A slow-burning and increasingly suffocating variation on the myth of Cain and Abel, The Harvesters (Die Stropers) is the impressive feature debut from Greek-South African filmmaker Etienne Kallos.

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Guy Lodge

Variety

05/15/2018

This sternly moving, vividly shot rural drama draws quasi-Biblical resonance from its tale of teenage foster brothers locked in a familial and cultural power struggle on a remote farmstead.

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Emily Wheeler

Film Inquiry

09/13/2019

It's a film with uncomfortable weight, one that slowly but surely crushes you in the way any society presses on those who don't fit in.

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Brian Orndorf

Blu-ray.com

09/12/2019

B

"The Harvesters" is an unsettling feature at times, but also intensely atmospheric.

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Joshua Speiser

Film Threat

04/22/2019

8/10

One of the best measures of a film is its resonance, its ability to stick with you long after you have left the theater or turned off your screen. By that measure, The Harvesters is a resounding success.

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christo a

@RT18814230 01/02/2025

The Harvesters is an absolute triumph for South African cinema. A powerful story that will linger in your mind for years, because of the profound acting, astonishing cinematography and incredible direction.

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05/28/2021

So, for your very first film as director, you decide to pick a couple of kids who'd never been in a film before as your leads, and you require those kids, both about fifteen, to play gay in a region of South Africa that's almost a time warp to the days of Apartheid, an area of stultifying religious bigots who are also racists. That's chutzpah or insanity, perhaps a bit of both. Worked out pretty well actually; the film was selected to screen at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard category, and one of the kids, Alex van Dyk, age 15, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the South African equivalent of the Oscars. Not too, shabby, that.

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Etienne Kallos

Director

Brent Vermeulen

Janno

Alex van Dyk

Pieter

Juliana Venter

Marie

Morné Visser

Jan

Erica Wessels

Anel

The Harvesters: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

A young man competes for his mother's love when she welcomes a hardened street orphan into their home in South Africa.

Director: Etienne Kallos
Producer: Michael Auret, Thembisa Cochrane, Tom Dercourt, Sophie Erbs, Etienne Kallos, Giorgos Karnavas, Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Mariusz Włodarski
Screenwriter: Etienne Kallos
Distributor: Altered Innocence
Production Co: Cinema Defacto, Spier Films, Bord Cadre Films, Lava Films, Heretic
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: Afrikaans
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 13, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 6, 2019
Runtime: 1h 46m
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)