# Obscure Russian film about a collective farm competition

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [April 7, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982 "2024-04-07T22:15:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982/1 "2024-04-07T22:15:41Z")

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I saw a film at the Palm Springs film festival maybe 10-15 years ago.  
It was set on a wheat farm, where the wife of a crippled WWII veteran is trying to win 2nd place, so that she can get the prize - a bolt of cloth. Unfortunately, she wins 1st place, which is the party banner, that is nothing but a burden (for example, the mice keep eating holes in it, which she has to repair). The film is almost relentlessly Russian in its depiction of the miserable existence of the farm wife and her family.

I can’t find a trace of it on IMDB.

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### Author: ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982/2 "2024-04-07T22:31:52Z")

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[Cossacks of the Kuban?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossacks_of_the_Kuban)

I’m pretty sure this is the movie Michael Moore used clips from in Capitalism: A Love Story

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### Author: ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982/3 "2024-04-07T22:40:17Z")

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That’s not it - much too old.  
The one I’m thinking of is a modern “indy” film. It’s a very depressing look at the way collective farms worked in the post - WWII era.  
The ending has the granddaughter of the farmer-wife finding the precious, burdensome banner in a old trunk, and making a headband from it and walking down the street in present-day Moscow.

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### Author: ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2024, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982/4 "2024-04-07T23:20:28Z")

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[Harvest Time](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0418305/)?

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### Author: ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-russian-film-about-a-collective-farm-competition/999982/5 "2024-04-07T23:23:34Z")

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Wow, you are good.  
Yes, I think that’s it.  
The IMDB synopsis says exactly nothing about the plot, but I recognize the actress.

ETA: one of the reviews describes the scene I mentioned, so this is clearly correct.
