Award winner 2014

“HARVEST” by Paul Lacoste (France, 2014) wins the sixth edition of the Healthy Workplaces Film Award at the 57th International DOK Leipzig Festival. The film offers an unusual look at a precarious job between poverty and self-determination.

Award winner 2014Synopsis:

South of France, mid-September. 20 men and women, all broken by life, gather to harvest the good Lord’s grapes. During the harvest, the twenty grape-pickers will endure heat waves, sticky hands, clipper-induced blisters, waged grape battles and experience short-lived friendships. They will face the October storms and will have passionate discussions. Somehow, a kind of a utopic community will emerge…

Jury statement:

‘“There is no easy way of life”, says one of the characters in this meaningful film which develops a carefully crafted narrative through a flowing storyline and a visual approach in unison with the landscape. The characters are treated with dignity and respect and beneath the small talk there are deeper stories to be told; sub-plots emerge, each one like a small fruit on the bunches of grapes they are picking. A special community is described through impressive images in the style of an impressionist painting, producing a complete film with strong detail – true to nature and true to its protagonists.’