Reaping the Harvest

Colour, 35 mm
Russia, 2004, 67 min
Section: East of the West

Synopsis

Post-war kolkhoz poverty. Legless, a father returns to his young wife and two boys. He overcomes his degradation in song and exercise, gradually puts away his board with wheels and learns to use prostheses, but he eventually succumbs to drink. The wife feeds the family. As the most gifted combine operator she is given the Red Flag, a challenge award which the mice find a tasty treat. Fearful of being punished for defacing a symbol, there is nothing else the exhausted woman can do but keep winning the award. The narrative is told through the memories of a son killed in Afghanistan. In the present, relatives unknown to him go through his mother’s trunk and find a carefully darned piece of red velvet with a gold fringe... 

About the director

Marina Razbezhkina graduated in humanities from the University of Kazan (1971). Since 1989 she has written and directed documentaries. Her extensive filmography includes: And Love Him in Your Heart (I vozlyubi yego v serdce svoyom, 1989), House (Dom, 1989), Tempest Shadows (Burya mgloyu..., 1990), The End of the Way (Konec puti, 1991), The Man Plays the Trumpet (A chelovek igrayet na trube, 1994), Strange Freedom of Existence (Strannaya svoboda bytiya, 1995), The Heirs of Paradise (Nasledniki raja, 1998), Slavic Dances (Slavianskii tancy, 1999), I Feel It Is Time to Part (Chuvstvuyu, pora proshchatsya, 2000), One Wants to Sing (Khochetsya peť, 2001), The Very Aigi (Tot samyi Aygi, 2001), Life As It Is (Prosto zhizn, 2002), Life Is an Unpaired Boot (Zhizn - sapozhok neparnyi, 2002), Reaping the Harvest (Vremya zhatvy, 2004).