Set in the Carpathian Mountains of 19th-century Ukraine, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors follows Ivan, a young Hutsul man marked by violence and loss after witnessing his father’s death. He falls in love with Marichka, the daughter of his father’s killer, but their bond is cut short by tragedy.
Haunted by grief and memory, Ivan drifts between love and despair, caught between the living and the dead, as the spiritual world slowly begins to merge with his own.
Blending folklore, ritual, and myth, the film becomes less a linear narrative and more an immersive journey into a world where love, death, and nature are inseparable.
CLASSICAL FILM SELECTION
SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS
English title:
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Original title:
Тіні забутих предків
Director:
Sergei Parajanov
Country:
Ukraine
Genre:
fiction
Year:
1965
Length:
96’
Cast:
Ivan Mykolaichuk, Larysa Kadochnykova, Tatyana Bestayeva, Mykola Hrynko, Spartak Bagashvili, Leonid Yengibarov, Nina Alisova, Oleksandr Hai, Neonila Hnepovska, Aleksandr Raydanov, Igor Dzyura, Valentina Glinko, Aleksey Borzunov, Natalia Kandyba, Suren Parajanov.
A quote for the film:
They look at each other for eternity…
Selective list of festivals and awards:
Mar del Plata International Film Festival (1965) - Critics’ Grand Prize, Special Jury Award, Grand Jury Award / Southern Cross (Best Production), Rome Film Festival (1965), - Italian Tourist Office Award, All-Union Film Festival, Kyiv (1966) - Special Jury Prize, Thessaloniki Film Festival (1966)- Golden Medal for Best Director
Director’s bio:
Sergei Parajanov was a Soviet filmmaker of Armenian descent, widely regarded as one of the most original voices in cinema history. Working across Ukrainian, Georgian, and Armenian contexts, he became a central figure of the Ukrainian poetic cinema movement. His films are distinguished by their radical visual language, drawing on folklore, ritual, and iconography rather than conventional narrative structures. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors marked a turning point in his career, redefining cinematic form through dynamic camera movement, color, and symbolic imagery. Beyond filmmaking, Parajanov developed a unique body of visual art, pioneering a collage practice rooted in conceptual and autobiographical expression, much of which remained unseen during his lifetime.
