Harvest Time: A great political and poetic fresco (review)

The daily life of a Chinese village at the dawn of industrialization in 1991. A masterful film, awarded an award for its staging at the Berlin festival and viewed with a negative eye by the current authorities.

As the title suggests, it’s all about time here. A long time that Huo Meng manages to never rhyme with boredom throughout the year that sees his story pass. The year 1991, a marker of contemporary Chinese history where the 3000 year old collectivist agricultural social system would give way to massive industrialization and autonomous management by each of its plots. We follow this upheaval through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy whose parents, who left to look for work in the city, entrusted to their family who remained in the village.

And Harvest time is based on two contradictory movements. On the one hand the elders who, worried about the shift that is coming after having seen and endured so much in their existence, would like to stop time. On the other, young people, impatient for this future to arrive, certain that it will not be worse than their present. These contradictory movements follow the way in which fiction is constantly tinged with documentary, the beauty of the composition of each shot contrasting with the violence of what happens there, in particular for those who do not belong to the all-powerful patriarchy. Like this rebellious young woman of 21, forced to fall into line by an arranged marriage, whose thunderous wedding march scene on the big day tells of all the violence she must endure in the name of tradition. Never overwhelming in scale and awarded an award for its production in Berlin, Harvest time was received coldly by the current Chinese regime. Further proof that he hit it hard and true.

By Huo Meng. With Shang Wang, Chuwen Zhang, Zhang Yanrong… Duration 2h15. Released December 24, 2025