
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Film Screening | The Queen’s Film Society
The Queen’s Film Society presents Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) in a dazzling 4K restoration on the big screen. Widely considered the most important film in the history of Ukrainian cinema, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a masterwork that boldly combines folkloric pageantry, fairy tale mysticism, and frenetic, hallucinatory cinematography. Adapted from the celebrated novel of the same name, Shadows tells the story of Ivan, 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, but her shocking death leaves him wallowing in grief until he meets Palahna, 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 a sorcerer, with tragic results. Filmed in vivid color and featuring a collage-like soundtrack, which brings together Ukrainian folk melodies with modernist, experimental orchestration, the film is one of cinema’s singular productions, capturing the spiritual majesty of the past by creatively forging the medium’s future.
Date: Feb 11, 2025
Time: 7 PM
Location: The Queen Theatre