33: Ukrainian Cinema
Kathleen Norris on A UKRAINIAN JOURNEY, WITH NOT-SO-SPECIAL EFFECTS
When I began to explore films set in or about Ukraine, one film from 1928 led me into an unexpected direction, and I’ll be concluding with what it taught me about the use of special effects in film. But first I want to comment on the odd assortment of movies I found about Ukraine and its difficult history.
Set in a village in the Carpathian Mountains, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, (1965, Sergei Parajanov, director), tells the story of a doomed couple, childhood friends who are desperate to marry despite the enmity between their families. As with Romeo and Juliet, the story does not end well. The film is so visually stimulating that critic Roger Ebert described it as “a barrage of images, music, and noises, shot with such an active camera we almost need seatbelts.” Parajanov provides a dazzling glimpse into Ukrainian culture, from unique folk customs to Orthodox liturgy, where at a wedding, a bride and groom are blindfolded, and a yoke for oxen is placed on their shoulders. A woman consults a sorcerer to help her conceive a child, another prays to St. George for protection from rape. The film was panned by Soviet critics for departing from officially sanctioned “social realism,” but I’m grateful for Parajanov’s mixing of fact and fantasy. Using the symbols of traditional Ukrainian culture he created a strikingly modern film.
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