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An act of kindness becomes a terrifying trap in Agnieszka Holland’s Oscar-nominated drama about a woman on the run through World War II Poland who becomes an object of fascination and possession for a local farmer.
Rosa has become separated from her family while escaping a prisoner transport on its way to a concentration camp. Feverish and clad in a fur coat, she stumbles into the fields belonging to Leon, a simple man buoyed in his fortunes via black market profits. Taking pity on Rosa, the farmer decides to hide her despite the occupying Germans forbidding the harbouring of Jews. But Leon’s act of benevolence soon turns sinister when he allows his passion for Rosa to overcome his morality.
Necessarily harsh but also electrifying in the many shades of honesty it captures, this early work from Holland is a clash of class, religion, principles and sex. Twisting perspectives and audience sympathy, Holland isn’t here to provide easy answers to the conundrum of Rosa and Leon, and Angry Harvest is all the richer an experience for it.
“The acting, from Armin Mueller-Stahl’s amazingly taut Leon and Elisabeth Trissenaar’s achingly vulnerable Rosa to Wojtech Pszoniak and Kurt Raab as Leon’s money-grubbing associates, is near perfect.” – Chicago Tribune
