Harvest Of Fire Review

Harvest of Fire is an American television movie that aired on CBS on April 21, 1996. Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, the film stars Lolita Davidovich, J.A. Preston, Jean Louisa Kelly and Patty Duke. The film was to some extent inspired by the arson of eight Amish barns that occurred in summer 1992 in Pennsylvania and that was investigated by the FBI as a hate crime. There are also similarities between Harvest of Fire and the 1985 film "Witness."

FBI agent Sally Russwell (Lolita Davidovich) is sent to investigate a presumed hate crime in a small Amish community in Iowa after three barns are burnt down.[3] Given a rather cool welcome by the locals when she arrives at the crime scene Sally is able to gain the confidence of Amish widow Annie Beiler (Patty Duke). A shaky but solid bond is formed between the two women which enables Sally to go on with her investigation.[4] Slowly, Sally starts to learn more about Amish customs. She suspects an Amishman is behind the arson and asks to stay with Annie’s family to get a deeper insight into the community. This results in Sally’s discovering that Annie's daughter is seeing a young man whose father is being shunned for having built a barn not according to Amish rules.