Harvest Home (Filipino: Inagaw Mo Ang Lahat Sa Akin / transl. You Stole Everything from Me) is a 1995 Philippine melodrama film directed by Carlos Siguion-Reyna and produced by Armida Siguion-Reyna. The film stars Maricel Soriano and Snooky Serna as sisters reunited after the death of their father. Based on a story by Oscar Miranda, Bibeth Orteza, and Carlos Siguion-Reyna, it was written for the screen by Orteza.
In a quiet, rural village, Jacinta (Maricel Soriano) patiently tends to her mother Almeda (Armida Siguion-Reyna), a religious and pious woman who has slowly been losing her sanity since the death of her husband Arcadio (Robert Arevalo) several years prior. Jacinta is shown to be hard-working in the field and is admired by the women of the village as a dutiful daughter and wife, all in spite of the cold treatment shown by her husband Peping (Tirso Cruz III).
Meanwhile, her younger sister Clarita (Snooky Serna) has not returned home in ten years since leaving to study in Manila. She has since married a lawyer from the city, Joey (Eric Quizon).
Clarita travels with her husband to her hometown in order to sort out the land titles of Arcadio. The sisters are reunited but Clarita is uneasy being back home. Meanwhile, Peping shows animosity towards Clarita and Joey in part due to his previous relationship with Clarita before she left for Manila.
During a conversation between Joey and Almeda, Almeda discovers Peping's love letters to Clarita that were buried, causing Almeda to become hysterical. Jacinta would eventually become furious at Joey because of what happened. Peping also told Clarita that he would send letters to her, and Clarita would also do the same thing. However, she would give those letters to Jacinta, but Jacinta would hide the letters from both of them. While being cleaned up by Jacinta, Almeda told her that an empathetic Joey is about to give the letters to Peping, causing Jacinta to try to attack Joey for attempting to reveal the truth.
When the family reached the cemetery where Arcadio is buried, Jacinta recalled when her father discovered about the letters. She reveals that Clarita had been suffering from sexual abuse from Arcadio. Clarita had already run away from home, and in an intense confrontation between Jacinta and Arcadio, Jacinta pushed her father, causing his head to hit a sharp object which kills him. Jacinta told her mother about Clarita's sexual abuse under Arcadio, demanding Almeda that no one should know about the truth behind Arcadio's death, or else she would slander Clarita as her father's mistress. Her sanity unraveling, Jacinta expresses her jealousy over their father's favor of Clarita and they have an intense brawl at the cemetery before Peping breaks it up.
Their issues resolved, Clarita tells Peping to take care of her sister before she and Joey return to Manila and bring Almeda so she could seek treatment. Still mentally ill, Jacinta recalls her father raping Clarita who managed to escape. She would then attempt to seduce Arcadio and tell her father to love her instead, but he would rebuff her with laughter. Peping saw Jacinta crying about the incident and promised to take care of her.
After harvesting rice, Peping watches Jacinta dancing on the fields.
The film was digitally restored and remastered by the ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project (Sagip Pelikula) and Central Digital Lab. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was premiered instead in digital platforms on December 17, 2020, through ABS-CBN's exclusive digital events service, KTX.ph and December 19, 2020, on digital streaming platforms iWantTFC and TFC IPTV.[2][3]
After the pandemic restrictions were eased, the film's restored version finally received a theatrical release on March 19, 2023 at the Manila Metropolitan Theater, as part of the "Mga Hiyas ng Sineng Filipino" exhibition.[4] The screening includes a talkback session with the attendance of the film's director Carlos Siguion-Reyna, screenwriter Bibeth Orteza, lead actresses Maricel Soriano and Snooky Serna, co-stars Tirso Cruz III (who was the chairperson of FDCP at the time) and Jess Evardone, and Manet Dayrit, CEO of Central Digital Lab.[4][5]
Reception
Critical reception
Emanuel Levy of Variety wrote that the film was "elegantly and smoothly executed," while praising the "strong performances" of actresses Maricel Soriano and Snooky Serna who "make their roles seem more compassionate and appealing than they actually are."[6]
