A 5-year old child putting his ear to the ground on the grave of his skinny mother (buried without a coffin, merely covered in soil) stood strong not to show a tear. He probably showed off his resilience to his two younger sisters who were hardly able to walk, as their father buried his wife by himself, as the village got deserted as people starved to death... All of this was unveiling in the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine – a country with the richest soil.
This heartbreaking scene from “Bitter Harvest” movie has been keeping me awake several nights now, as my own family has been marked by similar horrors in 1932-1933 in Ukraine. I am just starting to recover from the death of my dearest grandmother Hanna who passed away this past winter, and joined her brother Fedir who luckily survived the genocide of Holodomor in Poltava oblast’, Ukraine. They were never privileged enough to grow with their youngest sister Natalka who perished during those sadistic times.
I wish my grandmother Hanna was still alive… If only we could have at least one conversation about her favourite food, the house she was born in, and the bread they used to bake in the outdoor oven on summer days. I feel desperate not being ever able to ask her more about her life as a miner in prairies of Donetsk, and a romantic twist in her life that would bring her to the mountain town of Drohobych where I would be born years later.
George Mendeluk's genius brings the memories of my grandmother’s family back to life – one of 10 million of innocent Ukrainian lives taken away in 1932-1933. Traditional Ukrainian farmers have remained a primary target of Russian and Soviet genocidal policies for several centuries now. Mr. Mendeluk’s single movie graphically shows flagrant attack on Ukrainian Christian values. Many of us forget how “underground” the church was under the Soviets. Moreover, every Soviet officer who was physically abusing the priests in the movie – was a Russian speaker. Thus, over 130 official bans of Ukrainian language in the Russian empire have come up before my eyes. And this is a fact.
A Polish Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin’s defined genocide, given his supreme legal training and outstanding feeling of compassion to people suffering from such a severe form of atrocities. Shortly thereafter United Nations supported his brilliant idea and included it into the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Every line in “Bitter Harvest” movie speaks to this universal law.
First, the period immediately before and during 1932-1933 was what Jerzy Giedroyc called “executed renaissance” (“rozstrilyane vidrodzhennya”) – which stands for extermination of cultural flowering of Ukrainian writers and writers. George Mendeluk excellently introduces an astonishing image of Yuri’s best friend, Mykola – a charismatic and educated Ukrainian leader who shot himself. Mykola’s image directly mirrors the life of Ukraine’s first expressionist writer Mykola Khvylovy who committed suicide in the spring of 1933 in the presence of his friends, in protest to mass arrests of Ukrainian intelligentsia. Mykola was not able to bear the pressure from his teachers to find artistic inspiration from Russian sources, and not being able to freely and critically examine examples of Western artists of the time. Stalin exterminated tens of thousands of young, genuine talented people like Mykola. These actions reflect the first element of genocide – “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group – Ukrainians”.
Second, the viewers of “Bitter Harvest” can see as another element of genocide – forcibly transferring children of one group to another group – takes place, as Max Irons and Samantha Barks acquire someone’s else child.
Third, and most notably graphic scenes of violence by Bolsheviks speak to killing members of the group in a deliberate targeted manner. Thousands of resilient Ukrainian farmers have been revolting against the collectivization and attack on their private property and civil rights. As many as five thousand protests took place all over Ukraine in 1932-1933 as an attempt to voice discontent with selective and unjust deprivation of means to life.
Lest we forget that the genocide continues as we speak! Over 1,5 million people have found themselves internally displaced in the recent years of Russian war against Ukraine in Donetsk and Luhansk regions which started in 2014. Most importantly, Russia is daily intentionally exterminating and wounding prospects of lives for tens of thousands of Ukraine’s fittest and most resilient men, women, and children.
Finally, I find it particularly inspiring that the movie instills hope and candid belief that Ukrainians can keep giving more unique thinkers and simply hard working people of good will to this world. It would be so much better, if the bitter times remained in Ukraine’s past!
