Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)

Interesting facts

• Based on: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
• Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: 100 best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, alternatively translated into English as Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors or Shadows of Our Ancestors, also known in English under the alternative title Wild Horses of Fire and under the mistaken title of In the Shadow of the Past, is a 1965 Soviet-era Ukrainian film directed by Sergei Parajanov. Based on the 1911 novel Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Ukrainian author Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, it tells a "Romeo and Juliet tale" of young Ukrainian Hutsul lovers trapped on opposite sides of a Carpathian family blood feud.

Production

The exact budget for Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is currently not publicly known, and it is only available from the film's records at Ukrainian State Archives. The partial records gathered by Ukrainian film historians reveal that the cabinet ministers of UkrSSR in May 1966 issued a strongly worded reproach to Parajanov for "exceeding the budget of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by 97 thousand rubles".

The film was one of the rare Ukrainian-language feature film productions at the Ukrainian Dovzhenko Film Studios, which typically produced only Russian-language film productions, some of which were later dubbed into the Ukrainian language for theatrical distribution in UkrSSR.

The film is set in the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian Mountains and the location shooting of the village scenes took place in the Carpathian village of Kryvorivnia. The house in Kryvorivnia where the filming took place is now a museum. The indoor shooting took place in the pavilions at the Dovzhenko Film Studios.

Originally, Parajanov planned to cast a rising-star and box-office magnet Russian actor Genadi Yukhtin to play the main protagonist Ivan, but under the recommendation of filmmaker Viktor Ivchenko, along with comments from the film's cinematographer Yuri Ilyenko, that "Yukhtin just did not fit the part and when [during the try-outs] he dressed in the Ukrainian hutsul garments, it wasn't a fit for him", Parajanov later changed his decision, and cas…

The music was written by composer Myroslav Skoryk, who wrote the score inspired by Ukrainian hutsul folk culture. The haunting Ukrainian-folk music contributes to the film's grandeur, and is considered to be one of Skoryk's greatest film scores.

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