SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS

Set amid a community of Carpathian alpine farmers and sheep breeders, the film tells the legendary love story of Ivan and Marička, members of the Ukrainian ethnic group of the Hutsuls. The young couple's romance seems destined to fail due to the hostility between their two families: Marička's father, it turns out, was responsible for the death of Ivan's own dad. This classic work, shot in Ukraine, cemented Sergei Parajanov's international reputation. Eschewing a linear plot, he employs leitmotifs, colours, sounds and music to form a poetic audio-visual composition imbued with a suggestive, almost trance-like energy.