Devil's Harvest

source: Devil's Harvest

Bitter Harvest succeeds in giving the incomprehensible tragedy of the Holodomor a human face. Through the suffering of one village, a family, a pair of young lovers, and a young dreamer/artist, the viewer experiences this story of love and survival on a more personal level. The depiction of the brutality promoted by Stalin's murderous regime and Russian chauvinism is eye-opening. Some unknowing critics argue that it is unrealistic in it's depiction of idyllic pastoral settings and colorful villages with singing and dancing peasants (which by the way I have heard was very much the reality in Ukrainian villages). It makes for an effective contrast to the horror that ensues. This is a deeply moving movie. The most moving moment for me - when Yuri's sadistic prison guard looks into his cell and asks him what he's drawn on the wall. Yuri, exhausted and barely audible, answers - "My wife".

How many movies about 2-nd World War and it's horrors we watched? How good we know the topic and thus made it popular for Movie-studios? It is a rhetoric questions and now we have a great deal of movies in pantheon: 'Saving Privat Ryan', 'Schindler's List', 'The Book Thief', 'El laberinto del fauno' etc. They are absolutely great and give audience real feelings of horrors of war and occupation. They recreate emotions people felt. They wake our imagination and show the true story of event's through peopl's hurts. But what could have happened if world could not defeat Hitler's tyranny? And answer to that question is not always an anti-utopia as '1984'. We have real stories that have never been told, we have lot of terrors and crimes made to the human who could never rise their voice loud enough for world to hear. 'Bitter Harvest' is one of that movies - it has a very great deal of drawbacks: overacting, little scale of actions, poor camera work, and the main thing - actors who don't understand that deepest despair, total horror and loneliness of whole nation that has no friendly-country, only those who wanted to plunder and take something. The deepest despair is not shown at all. As example above '1984' - gives more bright emotion which was in human's mind. Ukraine story of 1920-1991 is a story of nation defeated by tyrants and silent for centuries. People fought, suffered and died - unknown and futile victims. Their stories were never told to the world. The horrors of Russian occupation was so terrible - that hundred years after they are still forbidden for World to know. There was countless millions of Ukrainians who was always ahead in struggle for freedom, but envy of historical neighbors have neither gave real support, nor even allow to tell about Ukrainian identity. This despair is in the basis of national Hymn and ideology - to survive, to live through defeat and hatred toward you. Movie lacks it - seems George Mendeluk just don't understand that deepest tragedy of millions and tries to imagine what it was like - but he fails. The main part is that despite drawbacks described above movie opens the topic for discussion and further work. It is absolutely sure it cannot be done without knowing the Ukraine, living here and knowing our live histories. This topic is of utmost importance as even now in 2017 Russian Federation does the same things they did fir centuries: they enslave. kill and LIE. Their lie is very loud and sophisticated, they 've made far more successful methods then Hitler's propaganda. And they have never been defeated as Nazis, so they turn reality upside down and even now defend all that was done centuries ago against conquered nations. Movie lacks of authenticity, actor's work is absolutely synthetic, scale of actions is too narrow - so it cannot be rated as WorldWarII movies. But movie reopen the topic that is even more important than World War II - as crimes done in USSR in 1920's did the groundwork for all what come later. Showing this to the world is of utmost importance for history and humankind. This is the first step into unknown and George Mendeluk has courage to do that – so he deserves respect and honor. I hope that this topic will bring more masters to understand and bring world the truth that was concealed and ignored for so long.

Although it is not right to write here about politics but one can not do without it while trying to explain this movie. It is world known that in 1930s russians, governed by communists, attempted once again to destroy Ukraine and its people by creating artificial Famine. The purpose was very simple - to destroy peasants - the core population of Ukraine - the carries of national traditions, history and memory. Next step - to send to vacationed Ukrainian territories ethnic russians - basically this is the explanation of "russian-speaking" Ukraine & nowadays terrorists in the Eastern Ukraine. Unfortunately, results were dreadful: up to 15M (according to American researchers) has died from famine. People were eating their children, each other. Probably movie is not artistic masterpiece but it deeply and in details describes the total dismay and despair of people who were sent to death just because they were Ukrainians and wanted to live on their land, cultivate their land and raise their children in Ukrainian customs and traditions....

This move captured me and did not release me for a long time. It depicts Ukrainian Genocide by Moscow which killed 6 to 11 millions Ukrainians. Not an easy story to tell. It's a love story about a young man in love with a girl from village and dramatic events in their lives because of the Holodomor. Hard movie, real drama.

It is very hard movie, which сaptured me and did not release me during watching it and even after. Probably some details (vehicles, suits, etc.) were not authentic, but the general idea - peoples' freedom and communists' desire to brake it was showed. I just expect from the director to make next story but with more happy end.

The Holodomor, or Ukrainian Holocaust is a dark topic. It is a short testimony to the power of the human spirit to survive even the most cruel and vile regimes in History. Even with the murder of 10 million Ukrainians by starvation in only 2 years, millions more survived. The bonds of love, family and heritage were what saved this great people from annihilation. Like the Holocaust in Germany only a decade later, we must learn and NEVER FORGET!!!

Bitter Harvest Written February 26, 2017 Excellent snapshot into Ukrainian Genocide, pre WWII, which killed 7 to 10 million Ukrainians. Authentic music, landscape, dress, and culture. Beautiful cinematography. An excellent introduction to this horrific period in Stalin's Russia based on this recently acknowledged true event. Timely production in light of Ukraine's continuing struggle with Russia for freedom today. Highly recommended!

The acting is good, the chemistry between the leads is effective, the evocations of village life are beautiful, the panoramic views of Ukraine are splendid, the music is beautiful, the subject is important—and yet, Bitter Harvest does heart-breaking disservice to those who perished in the Holodomor. Trying to cover political history from the death of the Tsar announced in one scene (evidently in 1918) to the famine itself (1932-3), while the romantic drama seems to take only a couple of years, blurs and trivializes history. The Hollywood hijinks and impossible escapes caricature the real conditions from which there was no escape. A few peasants standing in the fog with make-up circles under their eyes belittles the piles of skeletal corpses and bloated bodies of children that even one photograph of the real Holodomor bears witness to. Showing a fleeting screen shot of an article from the New York Times about the famine without clarifying that it was written by the notorious Soviet falsifier Walter Duranty (whom Malcolm Muggeridge called "the most dishonest journalist I have ever encountered in my fifty years of journalism") – Duranty, a famine-denier who stands as one of the reasons that the Holodomor is not better known in the west – simply sickens. For all the money spent on special effects (well done, by the way), the scope of the Holodomor is utterly lost. And what would it have cost to hire a decent screenwriter who could have reined in a plot that tries to do too much, and who instead could have focused on some serious moral dilemma that those impossible conditions spawned on the level of the individual? Yes, see the movie – there is worse Hollywood silliness out there, and the good things listed at the top are worth seeing. But then, for history's sake, go out and BUY A COPY of Harvest of Sorrow, by Robert Conquest (who passed away recently, alas). It is the definitive history of the Holodomor, and – in this time of 'alternative facts'—the facts needs to be set straight. https://www.amazon.com/Harvest-Sorrow- Soviet-Collectivization-Terror-Famine/dp/0195051807

The Communists starved the Ukrainians under Stalin. The New York Times via Walter Duranty, covered up their crimes. Bitter Harvest is a fictional action- drama based on one man's story that lived through it. Now, finally a movie that is not about Hitler (national socialism) but about the real threat America faces from the left- International socialism ( communism) - still being covered up by the same lying media. Walter Duranty is best known for his stringent denial of the genocide of the Ukrainian people, known as Holodomor. Duranty refused to report on the man-made famine that killed up to twelve million people. Duranty also claimed other journalists who reported the truth of the USSR, such as Malcolm Muggeridge and Gareth Jones, were liars. Muggeridge went on to call Duranty "the greatest liar I have met in journalism." Some of Duranty's most well known lies and falsehoods about Holodomor are: "There is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be." --New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931, page 1 "Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda." --New York Times, August 23, 1933 "Enemies and foreign critics can say what they please. Weaklings and despondents at home may groan under the burden, but the youth and strength of the Russian people is essentially at one with the Kremlin's program, believes it worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding." --New York Times, December 9, 1932, page 6 "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." --New York Times, May 14, 1933, page 18 "There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition." --New York Times, March 31, 1933, page 13 Duranty also admitted privately that the genocide was happening. Bruce S. Thornton wrote: Walter Duranty stands as perhaps the quintessential fellow-traveler, killing news reports of famine and writing that Ukrainians were "healthier and more cheerful" than he had expected, and that markets were overflowing with food—this at the height of Stalin's slaughter of the kulaks.