Like most people, I learned of the tragedy by reading about it. I've read a number of different texts on the subject, but what I read didn't prepare me for viewing this celluloid interpretation. Literally sickened is how I felt when I watched this film. There is not much to feel good about - government confiscating grain, adults witnessing their children and elderly parents starve to death, peasants' feeble attempt to fight Soviet soldiers while armed with pitchforks, bodies being pushed off trains into smoldering, mass graves, and later, bodies rotting in cultivated fields.
Technically, this film does not come close to matching the quality of films that we are used to seeing in the west. It was created on a very small budget. Surely the equipment was outdated by industry standards for its time. The film is subtitled in English.
Why is this film important? We will never know how many people died as a result of the genocide. Sources put the number of dead anywhere between 2 and 7 million. The forced famine had been covered up and or denied by the Soviets for years and years. Recently more research has been conducted and survivor accounts are being published. Few people outside of the former Soviet Union know of the atrocities. See the film and remember those who suffered and or died. Tell others about what happened.
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