Johnny (Josh O'Connor) is a farmer's son from Yorkshire. It's all up to him now, as his father can no longer get around properly. Running a farm under his father's reproach and without much recognition is no joy. What's more, Johnny's friends have all left to study; he's the only one left in the village. The arrival on the farm of a Romanian seasonal worker (Alec Secareanu) turns everything upside down.
Only the Earth is a dramatic romance unlike any other. It is the first feature film from the British director Francis Lee. The son of farmers, he showed his talent with a short film about a woman whose farm is to be sold, as well as a documentary about his father, the last of the farmers, in Yorkshire. The director therefore knows the environment of his film well. And it's with an interesting mix of genres that he delivers a portrait of both the rural world and homosexual love.
Between violence and gentleness
The harshness of the peasant world is apparent from the very first frames: the film opens with a still shot of a farm where, apparently, it's not every day Sunday, followed by a downward shot of the back of a person vomiting. This is the main character. The weight on his shoulders, his loneliness, the arid climate, his hidden homosexuality, all drowned in alcohol, every night. The result is a vicious circle of yesterday's tomorrows.
The harshness of this daily life is particularly evident in the calving scenes, presented against a backdrop of organic realism rarely seen in cinema. Echoing these calf births, the violence is echoed in scenes of sodomy with a stranger, in dirty places like toilets or a cattle truck. The character becomes a beast in this daring, raw cinema, which is bound to disturb more modest viewers, including myself.
Sweetness will come with the one Johnny first calls «the gypsy», in mocking fashion - before being charmed by his delicacy, skill and beauty. Gheorghe, who comes to help out on the farm for just a week and is «housed» in half a caravan, is not taken in by Johnny's initial viciousness. An altercation scene, head against head, triggers a head-to-head and, we might say, head-to-tail complicity.
Homosexual land
Fortunately, there's much more to the film and to gay love than just sex. Magnificent minutes are devoted to the two men's work outdoors, tending lambs, putting up fences. Gheorghe, who fled Romania - «my country is dead», he says - will open the farmer's eyes to the beauty of his corner of the world. «It's beautiful, but it's lonely.» Perhaps, alas, like the fate of homosexual couples. Homosexuality is a destiny, inscribed in the very soil of the individual. Only the Earth.
How many cases, by the way, does this film cover? No one knows. Even if they are few in number, these people deserve to be magnified on screen. The parents, too, who are the guardians of their land and guess at their sons' homosexuality, deserve it. In fact, they are portrayed by such moving actors as Harry Lister Smith and Gemma Jones. It's also a film about the relationship between father and son, two people frustrated by their differences, as in all families. A film about the decline of the father, the father so hard, the father so severe, the father nonetheless.
An overall success
Despite its undeniable qualities, Only the Earth suffers from a conventional ending. It's hard to believe in the rather hasty reunion scene. The film also takes a somewhat pessimistic look at the peasant world, as this particular situation is no doubt not the rule, and the difficulties of same-sex love also present themselves in urban contexts.
Still, it's a fine film. A film where gentleness is an effort for Johnny and a primal nature for Gheorghe. A film where the breath of the wind outside mingles with the sensual breaths of the lovers. It's a film that should be seen, because it avoids the usual proselytizing of homosexual love affairs and offers a non-judgmental picture of love without parental hysteria or political demands.
Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com
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