The Harvest
Gurwinder comes from Punjab, he’s been working for years as a farm hand in Agro Pontino, not far from Rome.
Since he first came in Italy, he’s been living with the rest of the Sikh community in Latina province. Hardeep is also Indian, but her stress is Roman, and she works as a cultural mediator.
She, born and raised in Italy, is trying to free herself from the memories of a family that emigrated in another age, while he is forced, against his faith, to take methamphetamine and doping to bear the heavy work pace, to be able to send money in India.
Gurwinder’s story represents a vast universe of exploitation: a silent army of men bent over the fields working, with no breaks, all around Italy. Manually harvesting vegetables, sowing and planting 12 hours a day under the sun; they call their employer “Lord”, undergo oppression and any kind of violence.
4 euros per hour if they’re lucky, paid after months or sometimes never, violence and blows, work-related injuries which are never reported and easy “dismissals” for who tries to react.
That’s what The Harvest tells: the life inside the Sikh communities living permanently in the Pontine and their relationship with labour market. The members of these communities are mainly employed as day labourers for local agriculture. The episodes of exploitation (gang-master system, piece rates, low salaries, physical and verbal violence) were reported many times, mostly by local associations. Alongside these events, the use of performance-enhancing substances saw a stunning growth, in order to tolerate the hard pace of work in the fields. Substances that, in particular, are amphetamines, oppioids and antispasmodics.
The issue of exploitation in farm work and, in particular, of migrant manpower becomes central every summer, gaining attention by the media and bringing to the surface critical issues like gang-master system. Although, this attention is cyclical and disappears when autumn comes.
The Harvest wants to face this issue through an innovative lens combining the styles of documentary and musical, this one used as a plot device to tell the strain of working in the fields and the use of performance-enhancing substances. Through a musical and cinematographic research, this movie wants to tell something that would be hard to bring to the audience attention without being grandiloquent or doctrinaire. To find an innovative artistic form to tell the rough reality that tends to hide in the folds of the everyday life: this is the stylistic crux the documentary faces.
A docu-musical that, for the first time, combines the documentary and the traditional Punjabi choreographies, to show the humiliation of the workers in the fields exploited by the gang-masters.
Two stories intertwining, during one day, from the work in the fields from the first hours of the morning to the evening prayer in the temple.
A though work of seeding, day after day, whose deserved harvest, between residence permits to be renewed and fake pay checks, still appears very far.
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Andrea Paco MarianiDirector
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Andrea Paco MarianiWriter
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SMK VideofacoryProducer
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Hardeep KaurKey Cast
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Gurwinder SinghKey Cast
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Marco OmizzoloKey Cast
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Salvo LuccheseCinematography
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Corrado IuvaraEditing
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Angelica GentiliniEditing
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Nicola ZambelliSecond Camera Operator
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Bhangra VibesArtistical Cast
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Slick Steve and the GangstersArtistical Cast
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Mario CoccettiArtistical Cast
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Claudio CadeiOriginal Soundtrack
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Project Title (Original Language):The Harvest
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Project Type:Documentary, Experimental, Music Video
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Genres:Documentary, fiction, musical
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Runtime:1 hour 13 minutes
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Completion Date:September 1, 2017
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Country of Origin:Italy
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Country of Filming:Italy
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Language:English, Hindi, Italian
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Shooting Format:Full HD
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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HumanDoc Film Festival 2017Warsaw
Poland
November 26, 2017
European
Special Mention -
Delhi International Film Festival 2017New Delhi
India
December 5, 2017
World
Official Selection -
Cineteca di BolognaBologna
Italy
January 19, 2018
Italian Theatrical Premiere -
Noida International Film Festival 2018Noida
India
January 28, 2018
Best Feature Documentary Award -
Working Title Film Festival 2018Vicenza
Italy
April 27, 2018 -
Cine Pobre Film Festival 2018La Paz
Mexico
May 3, 2018
Official Selection -
FINCA 2018Buenos Aires
Argentina
June 6, 2018
South American Premiere
Segundo Premio Competencia Oficial de Largometrajes Internacionales -
Cinemambiente 2018Torino
Italy
June 3, 2018
Panorama
Distribution Information
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OpenDDBCountry: ItalyRights: All Rights, Video on Demand, Theatrical
Born in Brescia (Italy) on 23.02.1983. In 2010 he achieve
an advanced degree in "Cultures and human rights", after studying Political Science in Bologna (Italy). He starts working as a professional videomaker in 2008, while he was studying and researching in Sarajevo.
The next year he creates SMK Videofactory, building a network
of artists for the production of professional video and photographic projects. "Tomorrow's Land" (2011), "An ephemeral madness" (2012), "Green Lies"(2014), "Vite al Centro"(2014), "Our oil?" (2016), "The Harvest" (2017).
SMK Videofactory is an independent production company founded in 2009 in Bologna by a group of media activists. In these years SMK produced mainly social-focused documentaries and investigative reports.
SMK firmly believes in new models of Crowdfunding production and in the idea that producing audio-visual works in a different way is possible. Its first crowdfunding project dates back to 2011 for the movie “Tomorrow’s Land”.
From that moment on, SMK produced a sequence of documentaries through crowdfunding campaigns: “Kosovo vs Kosovo” (2012), “Una follia effimera” (2012), “Green Lies” (2014), “Vite al Centro” (2014), “Quale Petrolio?” (2016).
In the wake of the experience of Tomorrow’s Land self-distribution, SMK founded in 2013 “Distribuzioni dal Basso”, an internet portal which supports the distribution of audiovisual works of rising directors and independent film studios from all around Italy. Today Distribuzioni dal Basso has become OpenDDB, the first European portal of creative Works in Creative Commons.