Vremya zhatvy

This documentary/movie about a woman on a collective farm winning an award for her hard work is a must-see. Without expecting too much of it, i went to see the movie. After a few minutes it was like i was IN the movie, like i was walking in the farm, and looking in the garden and house of Antonina and her disabled husband and her son, the story-teller. This movie shows the life on the farm in the Soviet Union, both a tough life, and at the same time a simple and happy life, compared to life in post-soviet Russia.

Beautiful images and nice, sometimes a bit Yann Tiersen-like music, this documentary-like movie is a must see.

And also one of the best movies about our Soviet past I've seen. The epoch looks thrilling and somehow wonderful at the same time. It does not speculate on Stalinism and does not adorn anything. It is almost documentary - I was not surprised when I learnt that the movie was based on the real story, that all actors, except Lyudmila Motornaya (Tosya), were non-professionals, and that the director, Marina Razbezhkina, has a considerable documentary experience.

There is not much action in the film and it can be somewhat difficult to continue watching repeated, slow scenes of the harvester, the field, the flag, and again, and again - but there is a definite sense in all this, and the ending redeems it all. It is worth to watch it until the end and then you will be surely touched.

If you are interested in what we have left behind, in our past, you must see this.

Some individual poetic moments of an almost forgotten wrecked past, be it the situation and/or the beautiful photography. It's the old Soviet Union, the time of the kolkhoz(e). A family history at a decisive moment. A son, another son, a mum, a dad and a bloody goose. A banner. A war history. A city apartment. And some almost forgotten dear memories. A mother holding her young son. Trying to hold things together in different respects. This commentary is already too long for a poetic movie that you simply should watch, instead of reading crap about it (like this piece). If you like The straight story, Bye bye blue bird or Der Himmel über Berlin, you might enjoy this one.

excellent footage using a fifties camera to attain the era zeitgeist,with very powerful poetic images of nature that may not serve the narrative still very beautiful. it can be read as the lost cause of communism and the triumph of personal will and the eventual downfall of patriotism in the soviet era.Although the heroine is presented as a one dimensional character we tend to sympathize with her in an indirect way, her inability to love anyone except her duty towards the soviet ideals is a perfect parable for self destruction. must see for every serious film lovers.the final sequence is very ironic towards the sufferings of a whole nation but still very clever and thought provoking.

I saw "Harvest Time" at 29th Hong Kong Internatioanl Film Festival last month and consider it is the best film I have seen at the festival. It's a feature film with no doubt, but it's also beautiful and poetic. It is common to tell a story in a film, but it is not so common to write a poetry with images. "Harvest Time" seems to inherit the spirit of Andrey Tarkovsky. The images in this film are stunning. The story is sad and is told in a "casual" way by a kid, which makes the the film's point of view indirect yet somewhat more ironic. It should be watched on widescreen in cinema. The light, the colors and the moving details of the images will strike your heart. Dust floating in the air, a child talking to a mouse, insects running on the floor and a combine roaring on the field in the morning mist, all of them are words and sentences of a poetry. The "theme song" of the film is a ballad sung in Russian. Its simplicity and beauty add to the film's poetic atmosphere. It also makes one think of the fate of the Russians. Since everything has its own reasons, what are the reasons for so many tragedies that happened in Russia?