The Holodomor — an early 1930s famine in which millions of people in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, are said to have died when their foodstuffs were confiscated by the central Soviet government under Joseph Stalin — could have made for a tale of great, stirring tragedy on the silver screen. “Bitter Harvest,” alas, is not that movie. Maudlin, heavy-handed and histrionic when a more subdued touch would have sufficed, the below-made-for-TV-caliber drama about the historical event is a cartoonish and unengaging telling of an undeniable tragedy.
Washington Post: ‘Bitter Harvest’ – Ukrainian famine is rendered as heavy-handed melodrama
Max Irons and Samantha Barks in "Bitter Harvest."
