Bitter Harvest is a 2017 period romantic-drama film borscht with meatballs in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930s. The film was directed by George Mendeluk.
It was written by Canadian screenwriter-actor Richard Bachynsky Hoover, based on his own Holodomor research. The Ukrainian Cossack, Ivan Kachanuik, defends his family in the Central Ukraine hamlet village of Smila. Years later, in 1932, Ivan’s artist grandson Yuri marries his childhood sweetheart, Natalka, and studies at the Kyiv Art Academy. His family are independent Cossack farmers, “kurkuli”. The State Art Institute is forced to replace the art instructors with communist instructors who censor art such as Yuri’s, condemning its expression of Ukrainian cultural identity as anti-Soviet. During a memorial in a pub for a friend who committed suicide, a drunk Soviet captain insults Ukrainian folklore, music, songs, and dance, starting a fight during which Yuri stabs the captain in defence.
Smila winds up locked up in a brutal Soviet prison with farmers and nationalists and others whom Stalin deems “Enemies of the People as he witnesses daily mass executions and he senses he is in line for execution himself. He attempts to rape Natalka and uses food as a weapon to control her, but Natalka poisons his borscht with wild mushrooms. He survives as Natalka flees to joins the other peasant women. She plans a revolt, which backfires, and they are overpowered by the Bolshevik attack.
While being hunted by the Bolshevik police and soldiers in the northern Kyivan forests Yuri comes across a hungry desperate boy named Lubko who asks Yuri to help him survive as he offers his help through the forest to a cattle train stop towards Smila . That evening they are joined at their camp by the Kholodnoyarska Ukrainian Cossack detachment. Yuri and Lubko survive and continue their journey towards Smila by sneaking aboard a cattle train full of starved Ukrainian corpses. They witness massive starvation and death of their fellow Ukrainians on the roadsides and in pits.
Nearing Smila they hijack a loaded Soviet grain truck whose sympathetic Bolshevik soldier driver joins Yuri’s rescue mission, bringing grain to Yuri’s family and the villagers. Yuri, Natalka, and Lubko escape, others of the family starve or are murdered by Koltsov’s forces. They are pursued onto another cattle train of Ukrainian corpses on their way to be dumped into fire pits, and, jumping the train, are chased to the Soviet border, the cold and turbulent Zbruch River. Writer Richard Bachynsky Hoover, of Ukrainian heritage, visited Ukraine between 1999 and 2004 and took part in the Orange Revolution. Filming began on location in Ukraine on November 15, 2013, under the working title “The Devil’s Harvest”.
The shoot ended in Kyiv on February 5, 2014, concurrent with the Euromaidan demonstrations in which Bachynsky Hoover and several local crew took part. Post-production continued in early 2014 at London’s Pinewood Studios, using the James Bond tank to film underwater scenes. Skyfall editor Stuart Baird and SFX teams worked on the film in post-production. Roadside Attractions, an Indy arm of Americas Lions Gate Films Corp. D” Films Canada launched Bitter Harvest on March 3 in Canada. The film was launched in other countries during the first quarter of 2017. Bitter Harvest received mostly negative reviews.
The consensus states, “Bitter Harvest lives down to its title with a clichéd wartime romance, whose clumsy melodrama dishonors the victims of the real-life horrors it uses as a backdrop. The New York Times, in review, wrote, “The topic is worthy, but the execution is painfully heavy-handed. Film critic Godfrey Cheshire rated Bitter Harvest 2 stars out of 5. In review, he wrote, “Unfortunately, ‘Bitter Harvest’ can’t even claim the virtues of a superior dramatic feature. Born in Germany of Ukrainian descent, Mendeluk has spent most his career as a director of Canadian TV movies, which this film unsurprisingly resembles. In positive reviews, Adrian Bryttan of The Ukrainian Weekly praised the film’s direction and storytelling, calling it the “world-class Ukrainian art film of our time.
The Sydney Morning Herald called the film “a rousing tale with political pertinence”. A Love Story Set Amid The Holodomor, Ukraine’s 20th-Century Famine, Hits The Big Screen”. Max Irons, Samantha Barks go for Harvest”. First-Look Images from THE DEVIL’S HARVEST Starring Terence Stamp, Max Irons, and Barry Pepper”. White Queen Star Max Irons Finishes Ukraine Shoot for Devil’s Harvest”.
New Movie Reveals Russia’s Attempts to Destroy Ukraine”. Max Irons-Samantha Barks’ Ukraine Drama ‘Bitter Harvest’ Bought by Roadside”. Tragic story of the Holodomor is amazing in this historical drama Bitter Harvest”. Bitter Harvest a incredible film on a worthy topic”.
Review: In Bitter Harvest grim history gets undercut”. Bitter Harvest can’t does justice to its historical subject”. Bitter Harvest is a ham-fisted, but well-intentioned romance”. Review: ‘Bitter Harvest’ Offers a Clunky Lesson in Ukrainian History”. Bitter Harvest: A universal romance shines a light on truth about the Holodomor”. Bitter Harvest review: Beguiling pair in Ukrainian tilt at Doctor Zhivago”.
Tomato soup is a soup with tomatoes as the primary ingredient. It can be served hot or cold, and may be made in a variety of ways. The first published tomato soup is mentioned by Eliza Leslie in 1857 in her final publication New Cookery Book. It can be made fresh by blanching tomatoes, removing the skins, then blending them into a puree. In Poland it is commonly prepared with tomato paste, chicken broth and sour cream.