Harvest (Stadt Land Fluss)

During the harvest, the farm hands are out working every day – even on Sundays. The barn has to be kept clean at all times and, if a cow refuses to bond with her calf, then it is raised by hand.

Marko is an apprentice working on a large agricultural complex in the Nuthe Urstromvalley district sixty kilometers south of Berlin. If he passes his final examinations he will be a fully-fledged farmer. That is, if he really wants to. But he’s not sure. He doesn’t have many friends outside the workplace and the eleven other apprentices see him as a rather uncommunicative guy and something of a loner. But when a new apprentice named Jacob joins them Marko slowly begins to come out of his shell. The two men get to know each other – during the harvest, whilst transporting the grain from the field, or removing calves from their mothers. But then, the two men escape to Berlin for a day and, suddenly nothing is the same any more. A tender relationship evolves. But neither of them has ever thought about how – and especially how openly – they want to live to live their lives.

Benjamin Cantu: “During my research I helped out on the farm. This was when I began to believe that I could actually create an improvised drama in which the apprentices and farm workers were a natural part of the story. I was fascinated by these people’s lives which, after all, are so very different from my own. I was surprised to learn that, although the city isn’t that far away, it really doesn’t mean anything to them. I was influenced by the way they work together and talk to each other, and so together we created the storyline for Stadt Land Fluss.“

Benjamin Cantu was born in Budapest in 1978. After working as author and animator for animated films from 1998-2000, he received his degree in Animation at the Konrad Wolf School for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. From 2003 until 2010, Cantu studied Film Directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. Cantu participated in an EFA Master Class with Allan Starski and finished a short film at the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris. During his studies, he completed several documentary and short films in cooperation with 3sat and Arte. In 2008, Cantu received the Young Talent Award of the Axel Springer Academy for Young Journalists for „Die Welt gehort Chaim.“ „Stadt Land Fluss“ is Benjamin Cantu’s first feature film.

AWARDS:
"Siegessaule" Reader Jury Award for Best Film, Teddy Award, Berlin International Film Festival