During the nineteenth century, Ivanko lived in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine with his family, but tragedy continually struck his brothers and sisters, as when his older brother Olexa was chopping down a tree and the boy accidentally got in the way. He survived, but Olexa was trapped and killed under the trunk while saving him, leaving Ivanko the sole offspring of his parents to last into adulthood. His father had had a grudge against a wealthy local, and one day when the community was at church the two of them got into a fight which ended with the father being killed by an axe. But Ivanko was taken with the wealthy man's daughter, Marichka...
Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors, or Tini zabutykh predkiv as it was originally known, was the film which introduced director Sergei Parajanov to the rest of the world outside of the Soviet Union, not that it did him any favours at home. He had previously been making films for the state, and this was a drastic departure from toeing the party line with its emphasis on the folk culture of the Carpathians which not amuse the authorities, not least because of the amount of religious imagery - and witchcraft - that he chose to include. Basing this on a folk tale meant he could set in in the past and not so much explore the story, but rather adorn it with audacious camera work and visuals.
That story, such as it is, was not the main attraction in the West, and in truth it leaves little room for engaging characters as everyone in this conforms to a certain type: the tragic lovers, the wife who wants a baby, that sort of thing. Therefore it's best not to settle down here and expect tour de force acting with performances that will move you to your core, as Parajanov didn't seem so much interested in that as dazzling the audience with such a vivid arrangement of scenery and costume before his camera that you feel as if you have been transported back through the years to the time this is set. Not for nothing was this popular with the hippies who caught it in the sixties and seventies.
But this was more than a film that you could get stoned with, as while it certainly conjured up a collection of wild conceptions, there was a romance here for those who wanted it. It's just that this aspect is somewhat swamped in such shots as the tree falling on Olexa - from the perspective of the tree, which as with much of this looks quite incredible, or Ivanko's father being murdered and we see it all through his eyes, ending with blood pouring down the lens. For the first half hour, anyway, you watch the two children get to know each other in spite of their family rivalry, and they spend idyllic summers frolicking in the forest until they grow up and it appears as if they will be together for the rest of their lives.
However, it's not that kind of film and soon the chill of the harsh winter makes its presence felt, that Eastern Eurpoean stoicism coming into play when Ivanko (now played by Ivan Mikolajchuk) and Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova) are separated by tragedy. Ivanko continues alone, becoming a hermit and eschewing any comfort, and although he does get married eventually there's not much that can be done to cheer him up now that the love of his life is out of the picture. This is all wrapped up in Christian themes and a deep connection with nature, and also with a lot of folk dancing and music, including an rather alarming horn blast that crops up frequently to jangle the nerves. You could, in theory, watch this without subtitles and still be captivated by the striking quality of what is on the screen; for Parajanov his most famous work The Colour of Pomegranates was to come, but this is a more accessible film. Music by Miroslav Skorik.
