The Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union (SUSK), together with dFilms and our Ukrainian Student Organizations (USOs), is excited to announce that it will be launching pre-screenings across Canada for the most anticipated film of the year: Bitter Harvest. Although the movie is slated for a March 3rd release across Canada, SUSK will share the feature film across Canada on March 1st in Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Montreal.
“We are incredibly honoured by this opportunity,” remarked SUSK President Cassian Soltykevych, “as this tour not only demonstrates the strong capacity of our clubs, but also provides us the unique opportunity to spread awareness for this tragically overlooked genocide and ensure that it becomes better-known to the general public.”
Based on one of the most overlooked tragedies of the 20th century, Bitter Harvest is a powerful story of love, honor, rebellion and survival as seen through the eyes of two young lovers caught in the ravages of Joseph Stalin’s genocidal policies against Ukraine in the 1930s. As Stalin advances the ambitions of communists in the Kremlin, a young artist named Yuri ( Max Irons ) battles to survive famine, imprisonment and torture to save his childhood sweetheart Natalka ( Samantha Barks ) from the “Holodomor,” the death‑by‑starvation program that ultimately killed millions of Ukrainians.” For more information on the Holodomor, see here.
SUSK has taken strong initiative to commemorate the Holodomor over the past several years. The organization’s most recent effort, the 2016 Holodomor Awareness Week, saw 11 member clubs participate and received coverage from various outlets including CTV, Shaw Connect, and Ukraine Today.
For more information on local screenings in your area, visit the event pages below: