{{short description|2001 drama film by Goran Paskaljević}} {{Infobox film | name = How Harry Became a Tree | image = How_Harry_Became_a_Tree_film_Theatrical_release_poster_(2001-2).jpg | director = Goran Paskaljević | producer = | starring = Colm Meaney<br>Adrian Dunbar | cinematography = Milan Spasić | music = Stefano Arnaldi | country = {{ubl|Italy |France |United Kingdom |Ireland}} | language = English |based_on={{based on|''Lao Dan is a Tree''| Yang Zhengguang}} | runtime = 99 minutes | studio = Paradox Pictures Limited | released = {{Film date|2001|09|13|TIFF|df=y}} }}
'''''How Harry Became a Tree''''', also released as '''''Bitter Harvest''''', is a 2001 drama film directed by Goran Paskaljević and starring Colm Meaney, Adrian Dunbar and Cillian Murphy.<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=How Harry Became a Tree |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150592242 |access-date=15 October 2025 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Rooney|first=David|title=How Harry Became a Tree|date=14 September 2001|publisher=Variety|url=https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/how-harry-became-a-tree-1200469934/|accessdate=27 September 2020}}</ref> It is based on the Chinese novel ''Lao Dan is a Tree'' ({{langx|zh|老丹是一棵树}}, 1998) by Yang Zhengguang and deals allegorically with the Irish Civil War and Yugoslav Wars.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Harry Became a Tree |url=https://ifi.ie/film/how-harry-became-a-tree-2/ |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=Irish Film Institute |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/laodanshiyikeshu0001yang|title=Lao dan shi yi ke shu|first=Zhengguang|last=Yang|date=March 23, 1998|publisher=Xi'an : Shanxi lü you chu ban she|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
==Plot== In rural Ireland in 1924, Harry Maloney, believing "a man is measured by his enemies", nurses an unjustified enmity for George O'Flaherty, who owns the local pub and most of the businesses in the area and is the local matchmaker. When Harry's son Gus, upon whom Harry regularly heaps mental and verbal abuse falls for George's maidservant, Eileen, George helps put the two together. George's seduction of Eileen gives Harry the opportunity to create a scandal, despite the effect on his own family.
== Cast == * Colm Meaney as Harry Maloney * Adrian Dunbar as George * Cillian Murphy as Gus Maloney * Kerry Condon as Eileen * Pat Laffan as Father O'Connor * Gail Fitzpatrick as Margaret
==Reception== Reviewing the film in ''Hot Press'', Craig Fitzsimons wrote "though flawed, ''How Harry Became A Tree'' would probably qualify as the most effective example of homegrown bucolic melodrama since Neil Jordan's ''The Butcher Boy'' adaptation".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fitzsimons |first=Craig |title=How Harry Became A Tree |url=https://www.hotpress.com/culture/how-harry-became-a-tree-2614074 |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=Hot Press}}</ref>
''The New York Times'' wrote that it was "a comic and improbably loving meditation on hate, absurdist but never abstract, using Ireland in 1924 as a stand-in for the former Yugoslavia."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Henneberger |first=Melinda |date=2001-09-10 |title=ARTS ABROAD; The Trouble With Harry? He Just Loves to Hate |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/10/movies/arts-abroad-the-trouble-with-harry-he-just-loves-to-hate.html |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *{{IMDb title|256084}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080922123852/https://www.cattleya.it/movies/details.php?id=18 Official site] on the Internet Archive *{{Rotten Tomatoes|m/how_harry_became_a_tree}} {{Goran Paskaljević}}
Category:Italian drama films Category:French drama films Category:British drama films Category:Irish drama films Category:2001 drama films Category:2001 films Category:Films set in Ireland Category:Films set in 1924 Category:English-language Italian films Category:English-language French films Category:2001 English-language films Category:2001 British films Category:2001 French films Category:Cattleya films Category:English-language drama films