Bitter Harvest (2015 film)
| Bitter Harvest | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | George Mendeluk |
| Produced by | Ian Ihnatowycz |
| Written by | Richard Bachynsky Hoover George Mendeluk |
| Starring |
Max Irons Samantha Barks Barry Pepper Tamer Hassan Lucy Brown Terence Stamp Jack Hollington Richard Brake Ostap Stupka Alexander Pecheritsyia |
| Music by | Benjamin Wallfisch |
| Cinematography | Douglas Milsome |
| Edited by | Stuart Baird Lenka Svab |
| Distributed by |
Roadside Attractions B&H Film Distribution Company, D Films Canada |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $557,241 (US) |
Bitter Harvest is a 2017 romantic-drama film set in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930s. The film was directed by George Mendeluk and the original story and script was written by Richard Bachynsky Hoover, who collaborated on the final shooting script phase with director George Mendeluk. The film stars Max Irons, Samantha Barks, Barry Pepper, Tamer Hassan and Terence Stamp. The film is produced by Ian Ihnatowycz. Stuart Baird, George Mendeluk, Chad Barager. Dennis Davidson, Peter D. Graves and William J. Immerman serve as executive producers along with Richard Bachysnky Hoover.
Inspired by actual events, Bitter Harvest follows two lovers, played by Irons and Barks, struggling with their kulak grain farmer families to survive as Joseph Stalin's collectivisation campaign begins to cause a famine-genocide in the Soviet Ukraine during the Soviet famine of 1932–33. Yuri, an artist from a family of revolutionaries, slowly becomes entangled with the anti-Bolshevik resistance at school in Kyiv, while his family and childhood sweetheart Natalka are crushed by Stalin's policies at home.
Ukrainian Canadian screenwriter Richard Bachynsky Hoover conceived the idea for the film during a 1999 visit to Ukraine. During his subsequent research into his heritage, which included a 2004 visit to Kyiv during the Orange Revolution, he learned that the Holodomor had yet to be dramatized in a film. In 2008, Bachynsky Hoover sought financing for such a film from the Ukrainian Government and various Ukrainian oligarchs, who were not interested. In 2011, he approached fellow Ukrainian Canadian investor Ian Ihnatowycz, who committed to financing the $21 million film in its entirety.
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Wikipedia