Village Voice
The low-budget aesthetic was probably unavoidable, but a subject like the Holodomor demands something more than a TV-movie aesthetic and pitched battle scenes featuring a couple dozen combatants...
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Bitter Harvest
Max Irons and Samantha Barks lead this war drama set against the backdrop of the Holodomor, the man-made famine that saw millions of Ukranians starve to death between 1932 and 1933.
As Stalin advances the ambitions of the burgeoning Soviet Union, a young artist named Yuri (Irons) battles to survive famine, imprisonment and torture to save his childhood sweetheart Natalka (Barks). Against this tragic backdrop, Yuri escapes from a Soviet prison and joins the anti-Bolshevik resistance movement as he struggles to reunite with Natalka and continue the fight for a free Ukraine.
2017Rating: M, Mature themes and violence103 minsCanada
DramaRomanceWar
- Director:
- George Mendeluk ('The Kidnapping of the President', 'Meatballs III: Summer Job')
- Writer:
- Richard Bachynsky Hoover
- Cast:
- Max IronsSamantha BarksTerence StampBarry PepperTamer HassanAneurin BarnardTom AustenRichard Brake
Bitter Harvest / Reviews
The Washington Post
There ought to be no lack of firepower in telling this shameful tale. Too often, however, "Bitter Harvest" is guilty of overkill.
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Herald Sun
There is a vital, saddening and illuminating story to be told here, and unfortunately, it doesn't always get the chance to make itself heard.
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FilmInk
Torn between exploring the horrors of Stalin's rule and Yuri and Natalka's relationship, the film opts for an overtly melodramatic tale of love.
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Boston Globe
Perhaps not the best backdrop for a trite love story, nor does Mendeluk have quite the epic vision of David Lean in "Doctor Zhivago."
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Associated Press
Teaching important history to younger generations via popular culture is always a worthy cause. It's just that soaking this sobering story in a soppy romance does little to advance that cause.
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