Description: Released in 1965, Sergei Paradjanov's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a landmark of Soviet-era cinema - yet, because its emphasis on folklore and mysticism in traditional Carpathian Hutsul culture broke with Soviet realism, it caused Paradjanov to be blacklisted soon after its release. This book is the first full-length companion to the f...
Brief description:
Joshua First is the Croft Associate Professor of History and International Studies at the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi.
Review Quotes:
'Disputes about the existential meaning of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors were conducted within the framework of hermetic 1960s debates about how to define 'poetic cinema' and 'national cinema'. As First argues, these discussions were 'filled with allusions to the great conflict between formalism and socialist realism during the early 1930s' (p. 45). Although these debates now have a decidedly musty aura, the film remains. First concludes his work by pointing, tantalizingly, to the films continuing influence over present day, and presumably future, filmmakers (p. 58). We shall see.'