Koen, Daan, Sven and Jeanine are growing up on isolated farms in the southwest of the Netherlands. There's no doubt about their future: Once they reach adulthood, they will take over their fathers' profession. For her feature debut, Janet van den Brand weaves together the everyday lives of these four children, composing a delicate and sensitive portrait of young people's dreams and realities in rural areas. One boy tries to reconcile his deep love of animals with the necessity of their slaughter, while another chops up pigs and roosters with matter-of-fact calm. A girl paints her nails between agriculture lessons, and a tractor enthusiast laments his school friends' disinterest in farming. Each at their own pace, they're absorbing the knowledge passed on to them. With gorgeous cinematography and elegiac soundscapes, Ceres contemplates—yet never romanticizes—the beauty and cruelty of nature's cycles in rural life. Charlotte Selb