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It's not easy for a screenwriter to conjure a compelling human story against the backdrop of a historical tragedy affecting millions, but it shouldn't be as difficult as the hamfisted "Bitter Harvest" makes it look.

Director George Mendeluk's would-be epic is set during the genocide known as the Holodomor, in 1932 and 1933, when between 7 million and 10 million Ukrainians died from starvation. The root cause was Josef Stalin, who ordered brutal repression to force Soviet-style collectivism on the once-free people of Ukraine.

Ukraine is shown as a happy place, the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, providing food for all. It's also where Yuri (Max Irons), a painter who dreams of studying art in Kiev, is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Natalka (Samantha Barks). Then the Soviet troops come through the village, killing anyone who stands up to them — starting with Yuri's warrior father, Yaroslav (Barry Pepper).

While Stalin (Gary Oliver) sits in decadent opulence in Moscow, his forces take the food from Ukraine's peasants and quell uprisings without mercy. Yuri travels to Kiev, but finds his art stymied by Soviet censors, while his idealistic buddies in the Ukrainian Communist Party are rounded up to be executed. Back in the village, Natalka is protected by Yuri's indestructible grandfather, Ivan (Terence Stamp), as she fends off the leering advances of Sergei (Tamer Hassan), the commissar in charge of the Soviet garrison.

The script — which Mendeluk rewrote from a script by rookie screenwriter Richard Bachynsky Hoover — shoehorns the tragedy of the Ukrainians' plight with awkward action scenes and swoony romantic moments. Irons ("The Host") and Barks (who played Eponine in "Les Misérables") have some chemistry, but it feels squandered in a Lifetime movie-level melodrama.

The filmmakers seem eager to draw parallels between Stalin's treatment of Ukraine in the 1930s and the current tensions between Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's Russia. That added layer of self-importance makes the heavy-handed "Bitter Harvest" all the harder to swallow.

Twitter: @moviecricket —

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'Bitter Harvest'

A love story, set amid Stalin's genocide of Ukrainians in the 1930s, is a hard slog.

Where • Area theaters.

When • Opens Friday, Feb. 24.

Rating • R for violence and disturbing images.

Running time • 104 minutes.