Vremya zhatvy (2004)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Marina Razbezhkina

Writer:

Marina Razbezhkina (writer)

Release Date:

28 January 2005 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama

Awards:

5 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Lyudmila Motornaya	...	Antonina
Vyacheslav Batrakov	...	Gennadiy
Dmitri Yakovlev	...	Vanya (as Dima Yakovlev)
Dmitri Yermakov	...	Kolya (as Dima Yermakov)
Sergei Starostin	...	Narrator (voice)
Vika Vasilyeva	...	(voice)
Sainkho Namtchylak	...	(voice)
Dmitri Derduga	...	Vanya (voice) (as Dima Derduga)
Mikhail Izotov	...	Kolya (voice) (as Misha Izotov)
Svetlana Yefremova	...	Singer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Inna Nikiforova	...	Girl

Also Known As:

Harvest Time (International: English title) (USA) (festival title)
Время жатвы (Russia)

Runtime:

Czech Republic:67 min (Karlovy Vary Film Festival) | Russia:67 min

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Company:

Risk Film and Video Studio

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

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.