Bitter Harvest

Director: George Mendeluk

Writers: Richard Bachynsky Hoover, George Mendeluk
Stars: Max Irons, Samantha Barks, Terence Stamp

Based on one of the most overlooked tragedies of the 20th century, Bitter Harvest is a powerful story of love, honor, rebellion and survival as seen through the eyes of two young lovers caught in the ravages of Joseph Stalin’s genocidal policies against Ukraine in the 1930s. As Stalin advances the ambitions of communists in the Kremlin, a young artist named Yuri (Max Irons) battles to survive famine, imprisonment and torture to save his childhood sweetheart Natalka (Samantha Barks) from the “Holodomor,” the death-by-starvation program that ultimately killed millions of Ukrainians. Against this tragic backdrop, Yuri escapes from a Soviet prison and joins the anti-Bolshevik resistance movement as he battles to reunite with Natalka and continue the fight for a free Ukraine.

Toronto-based financier Ian Ihnatowycz, whose family fled Ukraine in the late 1940s, and director George Mendeluk, whose Ukrainian parents emigrated also in the 1940s, revisit a little-known and horrific chapter of history that is at once unique and universal.

Bitter Harvest could easily have been filmed in Canada, where the central prairies bear a striking resemblance to the wheat fields of Ukraine. But the filmmakers felt it was essential to shoot on location in the farmland, villages and cities of the country where the atrocities of the Holodomor took place. Re-enacting the wide-ranging historical tragedy on location proved to be a moving experience for the Ukrainian members of the production. “Of course it takes a huge team to make a movie, and many of the people involved lived in Ukraine,” says Ihnatowycz. “Virtually every Ukrainian working on the set knew of someone in their family who had suffered during the Holodomor. It was very emotional because we sometimes filmed scenes similar to stories they’d all heard from their parents and grandparents. This film was very important to them and their passion was felt by everyone on set.”

A truly unique opportunity, Bitter Harvest will be screened for the first time in Hungary. It will be a one-time showing in English with Hungarian subtitles held in the Main Hall at the Uránia National Film Theatre in Budapest on Thursday June 29, 2017 at 19:00 thanks to the Embassy of Canada in Hungary.

The screening will be the grand finale of the“Focus on Ukraine” month which is a joined initiative, organized by the Embassies of Canada, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States, in support of Ukraine.

The film is not recommended for children under 12.