Bitter Harvest

Aroview: Set in 1920s rural Ireland, this raw fable concerns a troubled widower (Meaney) who tries to make a comeback in life by launching a personal vendetta against a small-town publican (Dunbar) who he has styled his 'enemy'.

Crafted with loving attention to its rain-soaked landscapes and the absurdly self-thwarting, but vigorous energies of its characters, this is spiritually of a piece with dir. Paskaljevic's CABARET BALKAN (and was originally meant to be filmed in Serbia). Touches of folk music and surreal images of cabbage rows somehow reinforce the timelessness of its emotions. Taken from a Chinese story by Lao Dan.