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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 2017 WWW.UNWLA.ORG 29 Bitter Harvest A review by Irena Gramiak As the final name in the credits moved up the screen and the bright lights came on, I had just finished wiping the stream of tears that had poured down my face, soaking my shirt collar. Looking at my husband, I managed to say, "It's even better the second time." Yes, I saw the move twice (two nights in a row, in fact). In a way, I liked it more the second time because knowing the storyline, I was not sitting at the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. I was able to sit back and watch the movie as a form of art. I could appreciate the scenery and lighting along with the soundtrack, things that I missed the first time. Bitter Harvest , directed by George Mendeluk, is set in 1930s Ukraine, at the time Joseph Stalin put into action his plan of genocide by starvation, which ultimately killed millions of Ukrainians. Throughout the movie we follow two young lovers, Yuri (Max Irons) and Natalka (Samantha Barks), who from childhood are drawn to each other, eventually building a love that even the most horrid atrocities cannot break. The theme of light vs. dark is seen throughout the movie, from lighting, to scenery, to advice that an art teacher gives Yuri. This movie shows us that even in the worst darkness, love is a light that can break though and never be extinguished. It shows the unbelievable strength love gives us to help us survive. Beyond the love story, the movie depicts Ukrainians as strong, loyal, and resilient. They endured unimaginable brutality and never gave up. They continued to rebel and survive. Some people (professional critics and general public) criticized the movie by picking apart small details instead of seeing the movie as a complete piece of art with a purpose. This was not a documentary. It was a fictional love story created to shed light on a part of Ukrainian history few non- Ukrainians have heard of. If non-Ukrainians walked away from this movie with an awareness that the Holodomor existed, then the movie did its job. To those who criticized this movie, I would like to extend an invitation to make a better one. Write it, cast it, fund it, and film it. Then sit back and take it when people criticize your work. Much like music and paintings, I look at movies as art. If it makes you feel, then it has served its purpose. And this movie definitely made me feel. I felt sad and angry, but I also felt proud and strong. I felt the young couple’s love and their pain. If a movie can do this, I consider it a success. I highly recommend Bitter Harvest and hope Ukrainians encourage non-Ukrainians to see it as well. The Holodomor was real, and this movie can help spread the word. Editor’s Note . In 2010, the UNWLA published A Candle in Remembrance , a translation of Professor Valentyna Borysenko’s book about the Holomodor. As a companion piece to the articles by Ms. Kerecuk and Ms. Gramiak, we share an excerpt from the book cover: History can be viewed as a series of cataclysmic events propelled by an insatiable lust for power or wealth (or both) with tragic consequences for some and ephemeral victory for others. It is, in the works of most historians, a litany of the exploits and excesses of kings and kingmakers, despots and demigods, who for good or ill leave an indelible mark on a nation or an empire. All too often, the legacy inherited by their powerless subjects is a legacy of distrust, destruction, and desolation of the spirit, which lingers and festers and shapes the destiny of survivors and their descendants accordingly. It is precisely such a legacy that was callously thrust upon the people of Ukraine in the 1930s, during an undeclared war in which the horrors of all of history’s battlefields were eclipsed by a weapon of mass destruction aimed at innocent men, women, and children whose only crime was their Ukrainian ethnicity. That weapon was famine, and its casualties were millions of Ukrainian farmers and peasants whose feeble cries for succor went unheeded and unanswered by a world that saw nothing or, in the name of political expediency, chose to see nothing. In giving heretofore nameless and faceless farmers and peasants who survived this genocide a voice, Valentyna Borysenko’s A Candle in Remembrance has become a monument to the victims who perished, an indictment of those who designed and implemented acts of barbaric cruelty against the Ukrainian people, and a prayer that the atrocities Ukraine suffered are never again perpetrated. - Tamara Stadnychenko
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