Bitter Harvest

Bitter Harvest is a historical drama set in Soviet Ukraine during the early 1930s, centred on Yuri, a young Cossack and aspiring painter, and his relationship with Natalka. While Yuri leaves his village for Kyiv to study art, he finds that his friends have embraced the Communist Party, and he is unsettled by the hunger and suffering spreading through the streets. As Stalin's policies force Ukrainian farmers to surrender their grain, the couple and their community are drawn into the terror and famine of the Holodomor.

The film was directed by George Mendeluk, who wrote the screenplay with Richard Bachynsky Hoover and produced alongside Chad Barager and Roman Kindrachuk. It is his third feature as director, following Doin' Time in 1985 and Destination: Infestation in 2007. Max Irons and Samantha Barks lead the cast as Yuri and Natalka, with Terence Stamp, Barry Pepper, Tamer Hassan and Aneurin Barnard in supporting roles. It was made by British and Canadian production companies with a budget of 20 million US dollars, and much of it was shot in Ukraine.

Reception was mixed. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from around 4,300 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.9 out of 10 from a smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 3.8 out of 10 from 60 reviews places professional response well below the audience scores.