Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

11/10/25

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

Directed by Sergei Parajanov (1965)

Widely considered the most important film in the history of Ukrainian cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a masterwork that boldly combines folkloric pageantry, fairy tale mysticism, and hallucinatory cinematography. 

Adapted from Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s novel, Shadows tells the story of Ivan (Ivan Mykolaichuk), a young Hutsul peasant who witnesses his father’s murder by the local miser. Years later, Ivan falls in love with the miser’s daughter, Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova), but her shocking death leaves him wallowing in grief until he meets Palahna (Tatyana Bestayeva), a beautiful woman who seems to restore his faith in life and hope for the future. When the ghost of Marichka begins to haunt Ivan, however, Palahna is driven into the arms of the local sorcerer (Spartak Bagashvili), with tragic results. 

Shadows is steeped in the earthy atmosphere of the Carpathian mountains; filmed by Parajanov and cinematographer Yuri Ilyenko with an eye for constantly innovative camera movements and vivid color; and suffused by Hutsul culture in the form of composer Myroslav Skoryk’s collage-like score, which brings together Ukrainian folk melodies with modernist, experimental orchestration. It is one of cinema’s singular productions, capturing the spiritual majesty of the past by creatively forging the medium’s future.

Restored in 4K by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre and in association with the Dovzhenko Film Studio. Special thanks to Daniel Bird and Lukasz Ceranka. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Courtesy of Janus Films

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Shows with:

Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage Shorts, 35mm, 1987, 6 mins 3 seconds, silent)