4.5 stars

The other Ukrainian war

It seems fitting,with the current war in Ukraine,to remember the Holodomor of 1922-23. Never heard of it? Neither had this reviewer despite a love for history. Also called the terror-famine, in the Ukranian language it means ”death by starvation.” Joseph Stalin expressly murdered ten million Ukrainians to silence Ukranian farmers from protesting the collectivization of their farms. This calculated genocide rendered Ukranians incapable of mounting political protest. This is the engrossing true story of Gareth Jones, a Welch journalist. With his lone voice, he was stymied in publishing his report which the fledgling Soviet Union and even the New York Times denied and decried because of the censoring of journalists and diplomatic relations. The movie did interweave a fictional vignette with George Orwell ostensibly to frame the period for the viewer. Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret of The Crown) and James Norton (of PBS’ Granchester. Excellent. 2019.