Decay of Strawberry Moon
Date:
December 28, 2024
Decay of Strawberry Moon
Decay of Strawberry Moon
by Maros Pulscak
Allfilm OÜ | Estonia
Drama
Logline
A young couple on the brink of breaking up takes a seasonal job picking strawberries, but as the fields empty and the season fades, so too does their love.
Synopsis
Laura and Martin are a couple in their twenties that are heading towards a break up. They have decided to go on to take seasonal jobs on a strawberry field. The hard physical work and the change of scenery are supposed to distract them. But in reality, it only amplifies what’s already broken between them.
Under the harsh sun, tensions rise. During long days in the fields, small resentments surface. At night, the Strawberry Moon, a celestial event linked to love and passion, casts a pale, ironic glow over their unraveling bond.
As the fields empty and the season fades, so too does their relationship. What started as an attempt to hold on becomes an inevitable parting. The Strawberry Moon watches silently, reminding us that some endings are as natural as the passing of seasons.
Author’s Note
Decay of Strawberry Moon is a film about the quiet ending of a love, not through betrayal or catastrophe, but through silence, exhaustion, and the slow erosion of intimacy. Though rooted in personal experience, it explores how relationships fade not in a single moment, but in countless small gestures, a missed glance, a hand not offered, a need overlooked. The film looks at these shifts with the patience of a changing season.
The strawberry fields, with their physical labor and unforgiving rhythm, mirror the emotional landscape of the characters. As the berries ripen, rot, and vanish, so does the tenderness between Laura and Martin. Each bucket filled becomes a small act of emotional uncovering, revealing what can no longer be said aloud.
The film intertwines the hardship of fieldwork with a symbolic space where their unspoken language takes visual form. Space where desire, distance, and tension surface with a clarity that words cannot give. Inspired by Magritte’s The Lovers, the white fabric covering their heads becomes a tactile metaphor: binding yet separating, intimate yet unreachable. When it finally tears, it is gentle, a mutual acceptance that what held them together has run its course.
Nature reflects their inner lives without judgment; the Strawberry Moon rises as a silent witness to their unraveling, reminding us that endings, like seasons, are natural. There is melancholy here, but tenderness too, and it shows that the idea that letting go can also be an act of love.
With Decay of Strawberry Moon, I aim to create a contemplative, tactile film, where the spaces between words matter, where viewers may Hind echoes of their own loves and losses, and where two people, once intertwined, quietly loosen into separate shapes again.
Company Profile
Allfilm OÜ is one of Estonia’s leading and most established production companies, founded in Tallinn in 1995. The company is known for its long-standing collaborations with international directors as well as its commitment to developing new talent. Allfilm OÜ’s feature films have received major international recognition, including an Oscar nomination for Tangerines (dir. Zaza Urušadze) and a Golden Globe nomination for The Fencer (dir. Klaus Härö ). Most recently, Tõnis Pill’s Fränk won the Silver Peacock for Best Debut Feature at the 56th International Film Festival of India.
In recent years, Allfilm has produced a strong slate of short Hilms. Baa-Baa premiered at Palm Springs in 2025 and is enjoying a great festival circuit. 3rd Octave F screened in the Dismissed section at Winterthur 2022 and Two Men on a Train and Someone Else… premiered in the International Competition at the 69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.