Vremya zhatvy

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.

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?

Genre definition of this film is a hard thing: I have written "comedy" but at the same time I can label this film a "tragedy" because it delivers an overall sense of the Russian 20-th century tragedy, on which background a personal tragedy of the heroes looks just as a particular case. Besides, all the heroes are already dead by the time of the film and the back voice belongs to the youngest hero who is also late.

Plot outline is simple (I hope, I won't spoil viewing:): a tractor woman-driver dreams of a chintz pattern to lace a dress, however, in a setting of the total poverty of the Russian post-WW II village, the fabric may be only presented by authorities as a prize for the "high tempo" labor- and how hard (actually, too hard) she works! As a result, the woman is presented a challenge prize - a velvet "Red banner" which she has to keep at her village house. The banner immediately becomes a target for mice willing to eat it, and the woman tries to do her best to keep the banner intact because the loss or damage of a communist symbol may inflict an "anti-communist" charge against the whole family. The labor victory changes the life of the family: as the back voice says, "This was the last time I saw my mother smiling." The film well shows the twisted labor motivations people had when alienation from the results of the labor was the norm.

Almost a docu-drama, the picture uses many tools its author, a prominent Russian documentalist, has developed in her previous documentary works: shooting in a real Chuvash village, the use of not professional supporting actors all of which are real gems, modest, natural coloring, depiction of some still existing pagan rites, etc.

The film is a rare example of an honest and sincere movie free of "visual effects" and "product placement" crap deemed "cool" and profitable by modern Russian cinema producers. No surprise, it had an almost zero distribution in Russia and would probably find more fans among Western viewers.

If anybody wants to sense what and how simple Russians felt during the Stalin era - this is THE FILM.

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.

pure poetry. a form of poetry of image, story and final part. a testimony about a period. and about people. a woman and her family. a field and a flag. a desire. and a song. the death, the dusty air, the goose, the mouse. and a lot of pictures. short - portrait from East. and this fact makes it a Russian amazing movie.for the air of for ever remember. for the images who proofs not only high art but who remembers slices of many other films from a cinematography who has force and science to give to artistic film nuances of document. a child and his universe. nothing more. nothing else. and a time of darkness . in the best light. under the magnificent wise of confession. a film who, after its end, becomes only experience. because its extraordinary beauty, its inspired ingredients are only tools for rediscover the profound truth of its message.