A towering achievement of world cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s modernist landmark fuses folkloric traditions, animistic mysticism, and hallucinatory visual invention. Adapted from a 1911 novella by Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors follows Ivanko (Ivan Mykolaichuk), a young Hutsul peasant who experiences both the depths of grief and glimmers of hope as he attempts to move beyond his first love, Marichka (an ethereal Larysa Kadochnykova). Steeped in the earthy atmosphere of the Carpathian Mountains, and featuring kinetic, radiantly colorful cinematography by Yuri Illienko and a collagelike experimental soundtrack, Parajanov’s film is a singularly mythopoeic work of art.
New 4K digital restoration by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
New audio commentary featuring historian Joshua First
New introduction by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project founder Martin Scorsese
New interview with actor Larysa Kadochnykova
The Lilac Wind of Paradjanov (2025), a feature documentary by Ali Khamraev
Shadowsur (2026), an experimental short film by Martiros Vartanov about director Sergei Parajanov’s son
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Carmen Gray