Harvest Time (2004) User Reviews (8)

A Kafkian comedy (?) depicting the absurdity and alienation of the post-war (and not only) life under the Stalin regime

[yahin · 8/10 · 19 March 2005]

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.

end of an era

[fifo35 · 10/10 · 27 April 2005]

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.

A Poetic Tragedy

[zoeing · 10/10 · 10 April 2005]

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?

Would I see this again? Het

[johno-21 · 5/10 · 2 February 2006]

I saw this film back at the 2005 Palm Springs International Film Festival and of the 14 films I saw there I liked this the least. I can appreciate the near documentary style and feel of this look at a rural collective farm community in the Stalinist era but it was a small movie and since it was so bleak I couldn't get past being depressed viewing it. It did have elements of comic relief but I think it could have dealt with this subject matter and story a little differently and taken it to another level for my taste at least. There were several promising aspects especially the ending was good and that could have been explored better. Coming in at 68 minutes this was also too short to be a feature film so it was accompanied by a 12 minute animated short from the Netherlands called Seventeen which in itself was depressing and had no correlation to the subject matter of Vremya Zhatvy so I don't know how the two came together in this screening. I would rate this a 5.5 and not recommend it at least not recommend it to a general audience.

Poetry out of nothing

[pj_moorrees · 10/10 · 24 November 2006]

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 !

[Gilau · 10/10 · 6 February 2007]

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.

Best Russian movie of 2004

[nsniper · 10/10 · 12 March 2005]

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.

an experience

[Vincentiu · 9/10 · 4 February 2014]

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.