Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors
Panel Notes 11/8/95
By: J. Cuasay

(For permission to use information contact: nasubi@juno.com)

Sergei Paradjanov was born in Tbilisi Georgia though his parents were Armenian. This was 1924. He studied in VGIK - All Union State Institute. There he worked with the Ukranian nationalist director Igor Savchenko. After graduating he worked in Kiev at the Dozhenko studios. His work was obscure until Shadows in 1965. This brought him world recognition, but by 1973-74 he would be tried and convicted. He would then work in a hard labor camp in Kiev until 1977.

The background to the times is a combination of cultural and political upheavals and turnabouts. The most significant ones being the post-Stalinist era following World War II and the rise of Kruschev.

However, as is already evident in the post-cold war era and the break up of the Soviet republic, cultural and ethnic differences have always been a very large area of difference too difficult for the centralized Soviet State to maintain and control. Thus, the major feature of the history is a constant tension between satellite states - like Georgia and the Ukraine.

It must also be realized that in the communist framework, art is to be serviced to the state. The effectiveness of film to deliver such propaganda was early recognized, and thus, filmmakers, on top of their own needs to develop artistic achievements, are forced to deal with governmental messages, values, and censorship as well. Often this tension swings back and forth between the acknowledgment of the State to relax control in order for artists to find new material and inspiration, followed by periods of harsh restraint in reaction to the freedoms taken.

Following World War II, there was a period of less restraint in which a greater deal of autonomy was granted to independent studios. The ideological restraints were lessened and the central State as a Censor or as it is referred to - the Spectator, intruded less upon the artist's work. While this new freedom was arguably a good thing, it was also an uneasy time of experimentation since an artist could never be sure how far to take such freedoms.

It was out of this period - a new generation if you will, that Paradjanov came out of. He was first credited as co-director of Andriesh, a fairy tale story made in the Kiev Studio in 1954.

Another important aspect worth mentioning is that Art in the Soviet Union often overlaps itself across media. That is to say, music, painting, literature and the like, are always being constantly reworked, re-searched for new inspiration. While this is true for non-soviet states as well, one should appreciate the stifling and closed nature of the soviet system in order to appreciate the struggle of the artist with such material combined with governmental control.

Nevertheless, artist were able to find ways to express themselves by returning to folklore and myth. This enabled them to turn toward the past - often seen as glorified, in order to make indirect statements softening their outward criticism of their present state.

There was a problem with this approach however. In searching for folklore and myth, the past that one found was not the official glorified past of Soviet History, but was more often the glorified cultural past of an ethnic group of people. While this glorified the nationalism of such a people and place, such an expression was contrary to the collective nature that Communist Soviet Union wanted to maintain.

Furthermore, stories placed in the past, unconnected with the larger present would also be seen as making negative statements towards the State in terms of Progress and the meaning of History in the Communist sense. Films such as Shadows, placed as they are in an idyllic utopian Agrarian past stand contrary to the notion of industrial progress, which was quite evidently in place when this film was released in 1965. The film also smacks of a dangerous Ukranian Nationalism since it takes a relatively autonomous people, geographically secluded and ethnically distinct, as its cultural subject.

By the 1970's, which of course has its historical parallel with the rise of the cold war and the period of Kruschev, the official position of the State in relation to artistic expression shifted, and Paradjanov found himself brought up on charges of speculation in foreign currency, spreading venereal disease, homosexuality, coercion to a homosexual liaison, and inducing suicide. Apparently the son of a high Ukranian functionary, who was friends with Paradjanov's circle, killed himself. Near his body was a note stating that he had contracted syphilis through forced sex with Paradjanov, and had decided to kill himself.

The court proceeding were closed, the letter was never produced. But Paradjanov was eventually convicted for trafficking art objects. Against the advice of his friends, Paradjanov had provided his own defense and was politically outspoken at the proceedings. Earlier that month he had been distributing pamphlets concerning the state of artistic affairs, which as might be guessed, were inflammatory.

Most memorable aspects are not the narrative, which is simple enough. Ivan and Marichka are involved in forbidden love because of a feud between the families. Marichka's family is rich and her father has slain Ivan's father earlier in the story. While Ivan goes off to tend sheep, Marichka waits. One night, she drowns while trying to save a lost sheep. Ivan broods until he meets Palagna. They enact a conventional weeding but it lacks love, and eventually lacks children. Unable to bear children, Palagna turns to sorcery, but succeeds only in seducing the sorcerer. This leads to a confrontation between the sorcerer and Ivan, and Ivan is killed. In death, he reunites himself with his one true love.

This is essentially a familiar story. The way in which Paradjanov uses film techniques is perhaps more innovative than the story line. And more memorable.

After watching this film you cannot forget the trembita -those loud horns whose enormity you see in a few shots. You cannot forget the almost constantly moving camera. Either hand held, or spinning for minutes on end in 330 degree rotations. You cannot forget the lavish costumes, the vibrant colors and lively dancing. In contrast you might also remember the alternation between color film, to black and white, and back again. Or you might remember the stop action photography in scenes like the lightning storm, the camera that falls like the tree in the opening shot, the blood shot when Ivan's father is killed, or the slow motion camera of Ivan's own death.

In composing this film, Paradjanov admits to being greatly influenced by painting in technique. "My directing tends to dissolve itself into painting and that its most likely its first weakness and its first strength." He also looked at his project as a chance to "document the soul of a people." And he looked at this processes both ethnographically and musically. "The power of a genuine thing, evidently, is that one high note is taken and held to the end. For a long time that note didn't come to me, although it often seemed that I just needed to try once more and it would happen."

Paradjanov's "genuine-ness": Film Comment page 44-45.

The process of making this film involves one with the ongoing history of the outside - that of the Soviet Union and its restraints and demand it places on an artist. It also involves one with the process of discovering "fine flashes" in order to not stagnate in a closed system of art.

By choosing a narrative that resonates on the level of myth - a story that is easily understood, the audience spends less time dealing with dialogue and diegesis, and more time consuming the fabric of the work.

By emphasizing music, sound, color, costume, and rollicking action - Paradjanov succeeds in moving this story from historical romance and myth to an almost operatic level. And at the same time this is informed by an ethnographic sensibility of allowing a people to represent themselves.

It also shows a careful crafting of an artist sensitive to the cultural fabric he is weaving. And his artistic commitment to representing the "soul of a people" - their traditions through represented and unconventional means is ultimately its greatest achievement. And perhaps the films flamboyance combined with his own outspokenness is what got him into trouble with a Governmental system more comfortable with surface readings following party lines. Overlooking ethnographic and cultural differences for artistic vision and strength.

Filming style is a challenge to how we conceive of cinematic space and how we negotiate the space between spectator and screen.

Perceptual dislocation - rupturing by rapid camera movement.

use of 180 degree or fish-eye lens combined with 360 degree revolutions

radical perspective like the falling tree

stop action and slow motion - lightning storm and Ivan's death

blocked vision - filming through foliage to the scene.

COLOR and SOUND

variety of music: atonal electronics, lush orchestral romanticism, religious chants

vocal and instrumental folk music

best example: eerie violin piece which first appears after Ivan and Marichka swim naked in the river where she will eventually drown. This piece of music returns every time the film contemplates on the relationship between sex and death.

Initially - blinding WHITE of the snow - perhaps innocence.

Disrupted by the RED of Ivan's father and his blood coming across the screen.

Then GREEN dominates the screen in the forest and during the spring - early moments of Ivan and Marichka's love.

MONOCHROME and SEPIA tones occur during Ivan's Grieving period

COLOR returns when he meets Palagna.

The COLORS changed to autumnal hues and back to monochrome during Ivan's death.

It then experiments with some surreal reds and blues before the closing shot of the film.

There are also white and reds used in fades between larger sequences as well as superimposition and montage in certain segments.

David Cook concludes with pointing out the many and disruptive points of view the camera takes combined with its psychological and archetypal narrative making an almost religious work of art.

(Above from International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers Vol 1 pg 464-467. Teni Zabytykh Predkov)

Cook, David. Teni Zabytykh Predkov from International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers Vol 1. p 464-467.
Fedenko, Panas. Ukraine: Her Struggle for Freedom. Free Ukraine Judenburg 8, Germany: 1951.
Galichenko, Nicholas. Glasnost - Soviet Cinema Responds. Ed. Robert Allington. Universtiy of Texas Press, Austin: 1991.
Hill, Stephen P. Notes on Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors. from Film Comment Fall 1968 Vol. 5. p 38-48.
Liehm, Antonin. A Certain Cowardice. from Film Comment (NY) July/August 1975 p. 18- 19.
Liehm, Mira and Antonin J. Liehm. The Most Important Art: Eastern European Film After 1945. University of California Press, Berkeley: 1977.
Marshall, Herbert. The Case of Sergo Paradjanov. from Sight and Sound, Winter 1974/5 Vol. 44 No. 1. p 8-11.
Seelye, John. Five from the East. from Film Quarterly, Summer 1966 Vol. 19. p 56 -59.