“I was born in Ukraine.
On a land that could have become paradise..."
At the end of 2015, at the American Film Market festival for film distributors, Canadian filmmakers presented the first full-length English-language film about the tragic events for the Ukrainian people – the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Later, in 2016, the film was shown at two major film festivals – Berlinale and Cannes. The film is being released worldwide today, February 23, 2017.
So, in anticipation of the film's premiere, we've prepared a small selection of the most important facts about the film itself and its creators.
Fact #1: “Bitter Harvest” is the first English-language film about the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.
The creators of the film describe it as nothing other than “a picture about pure love, honesty and indomitability of the Ukrainian nation”. In general, the film is aimed at a Western audience. The central plot of the film is the story of the life and love of Yuri and Natalka, which changes dramatically in 1933, when their families and homeland become victims of repression, the terror of the Stalinist regime and famine. This is a dramatic story about love in defiance of death, about an irrepressible will to live and a fighting spirit that cannot be extinguished, destroyed or restrained.
"Bitter Harvest" in addition to restoring historical truth also helps Western audiences understand modern Ukraine, its peculiarities and aspirations. According to Lyudmila Hrynevych, the film's historical consultant, the creators tried to explain through the prism of the lives of the main characters why Ukrainians have always opposed the totalitarian system and why so many revolutions are taking place in our country.
Fact #2: The main roles in the film are played by "new generation" Hollywood actors
The film's director George Mendeluk said in an interview that if the cast is chosen correctly, all the director's work will just go to the side and not interfere with the actors. From his comments, we can conclude that this is exactly what happened when working on the film. So, well-known American and British actors were invited to play the main roles in the film: the role of Yuri was masterfully played by Max Irons, the heir to a famous acting dynasty; his lover in the film was played by Samantha Barks, an actress who especially fell in love with the audience after the last film adaptation of "Les Misérables". The role of Yaroslav, Yuri's grandfather, was played by an equally famous and popular actor - Barry Pepper, known for his work in the films "Saving Private Ryan", "The Green Mile", the role of Ivan, Yuri's father, was played by Terence Stamp (the most famous films with his participation: "Star Wars. Episode 1", "Deadly", "Operation Valkyrie"). However, in addition to famous Hollywood actors, the film also featured Ukrainian actors – Oleksandr Pecherytsia and Ostap Stupka.
In the film, British and American actors and actresses wear embroidered shirts and folk costumes, sing Ukrainian songs and defend the rights of Ukrainians while fighting the NKVD, while Ukrainian actors play the roles of Ukrainian peasants and speak English.
Fact #3: The film's budget is $20,000,000
The appearance of the film became possible thanks to Jan Ignatovych, who acted as a producer and the person who provided the entire budget of the film, which is 20 million US dollars, from his own savings. In general, Mr. Jan is engaged in business in the field of medical technology and investment, and this film project was his first experience in producing. According to Jan Ignatovych himself, the agreement to produce this project was due to the fact that the topic of the Holodomor and the repressions of the Stalinist regime is personally painful and close to him, because his parents were forced to emigrate from Ukraine to Canada, fleeing from that very “red terror”. Another reason for supporting the creation of the film was the fact that until now only documentaries had been made about the Holodomor, which were available for viewing only to a very limited audience. And the fact that the Western world knows practically nothing about the events of those years could not but prompt the creation of a feature film that would truthfully tell the world about those tragic events and about the struggle that continues in Ukrainian society to this day.
Fact #4: The events described in the film are based on true stories
As we have already noted, these events are more than close to the film producer, but they have become no less significant for the family of screenwriter and director George Mendelyuk. As George Mandelyuk himself says, the prototype of the film's main character - Natalia - was his mother. It was the mother who told the director about those terrible days, about how she walked from Kharkiv to Lviv in search of bread, how people stood in long lines for bread at night and, in order not to collapse from exhaustion, leaned on those standing in front; about how her school friend died of starvation right during a lesson at school, sitting at her desk.
The image of George Mandeluk's mother was also decisive in the selection of the performer of the main role in the film, because the song "Moon in the Sky" that sounds in the film was sung by the director's mother in his childhood, and Samantha Barks also sings beautifully. Another source of inspiration for the director was David Lean's film adaptation of the novel "Doctor Zhivago", thanks to which Max Irons was chosen.
Fact #5: The music of the famous Ukrainian band "Dakha Brakha" can be heard in the film
The author of the main theme of the film's soundtrack was the famous British composer Benjamin Wallfish, whose family survived the Holocaust, so the film's theme is close and understandable to him and, most importantly, commensurate with what his family experienced.
The film is full of Ukrainian folklore songs performed by the actors, and the musical score of the film uses compositions by the well-known Ukrainian ethno band "Dakha Brakha".
Fact #6: Hope is the main message of this film story
Ukrainian films on national themes are often accused of excessive suffering and defeat. Of course, in "Bitter Harvest" suffering and trials of fate will be an integral part of the plot, but the main message of this film is still hope. The heroes of this film do not become victims of circumstances, they try to overcome them. The film also shows the so-called "women's rebellions", in which women try to do everything to feed their families, risking their own lives, and vividly describes the resistance of peasants to the prodroskladka detachments. However, no matter how terrible and frightening the events around, this is still a story about great love, which is able to overcome the cruelty of existence.
In one of the interviews, George Mendelyuk noted that in films, novels and stories about Ukraine and Ukrainians, they are used to talking about Cossacks, but the importance of the role of women in historical events should also be remembered. Therefore, the image of the main character - Natalie - embodies a value understandable to the Western world in the form of the struggle for equality.
Fact #7: The film took 5 years to make.
The work on the project "Bitter Harvest" was extremely painstaking and long-term. The script alone, co-authored by Richard Bachynsky-Hoover and George Mendeluk, was rewritten 12 times!!! The main filming was carried out in 2013 in Ukraine at the famous open-air museum Pirogovo, recreating the atmosphere and views of a small village in Cherkasy region, where the main events of the film took place.
The completion of filming in Ukraine and editing coincided with the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, and the actors and crew shared and supported the sentiments of Ukrainians, but the producers forbade them from participating in these events and tried not to disclose the theme of the film.
The film will be released in wide release today, February 23, 2017, simultaneously in most Western and European countries, including Ukraine. Important for Ukrainians is the fact that the dubbing in the national language will be only for our audience, in all other countries the film will be in English with subtitles in the national language.
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