The story of a famine that killed almost 6-million Ukrainians during the 1930s will be featured Friday night at the Cineplex Odeon – Southland Mall.
Bitter Harvest is a feature full-length movie about a couple in love during the Holodomor – a period of two years which led to the forced starvation of millions of Ukrainians in central Soviet Ukraine.
Orest Gawdyda is the President of the Regina Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
He says the number of lives lost during this tragic event is staggering.
“During 1932 and ’33, Josef Stalin decided to force a famine on the Ukrainian people by taking the wheat from them,” said Gawdyda. “If any family was caught with more than 5 sheaves of wheat, they were either killed or sent to death camps in Siberia.”
“This caused a famine that killed almost 6-million Ukrainians during that time frame. And people were not allowed to leave the country. People were starved to death because of this.”
- Holodomor National Awareness Tour arrives in Regina, Saskatchewan
- Holodomor: Voices of Survivors; documentary screened in Regina
Gawdyda says survivors still alive today can barely manage to speak of the horrors of that time.
He says references to this artificial famine exist throughout the world, including in Regina where a statue of a young Ukrainian girl clutching five strands of wheat was unveiled in 2015.
“UCC Regina was very fortunate to get a replica of the exact statue that is in Kiev, Ukraine,” said Gawdyda. “It is in front of the Holodomor Museum there. And to have this replica placed on the grounds of the Saskatchewan Legislature is a truly humbling experience and she is so well received.”
Bitter Harvest tells a story about a couple in love during the artificial famine in 1932-33.
The drama illustrates the impact of the Holodomor on ordinary people and is the first feature film in English on this topic.