THE HARVESTERS (DIE STROPERS)

Etienne Kallos 2018 South Africa 103min Afrikaans s.-t.f.
Synopsis:
The perpetual labour in modern day South Africa’s Free State region looks much like the exhausting 16th-century Belgian rural life depicted in Pieter Bruegel’s The Harvesters painting, which the name of the city-roughened orphan who joins the dwindling Afrikaners’ ranks underscores. Pieter (Alex Van Dyk) represents an existential threat for his new “brother,” Janno (Brent Vermeulen), a young farmhand struggling with his sexuality and spot in the pecking order of a highly religious household. Pieter is scrappy and world-weary, aware of himself as “white meat” and willing to sell himself to men as such, while Janno’s thoughtful interior tumult is at odds with his work-hardened body. Pieter is scornful of responsibility, while Janno is dutiful, yet has to watch Pieter earn all of their mother’s affection. This Cain and Abel-sized struggle develops on a grand canvas, the sublime landscape as awe-inducing as it is formidable. The stillness of misted plains gives way to rattling cornhusks and a swim in the crashing surf, as fraternal bonding transforms into wrestling match. As the film nears its white-hot climax, entirely unexpected secrets emerge, leading to a reckoning of Biblical proportions.