Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) is a Soviet Ukrainian film you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Sergei Parajanov and shot at the Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kyiv. Set among the Hutsul people of the Carpathian Mountains in the 19th century, it follows a feud between two clans that spans generations and refuses to let the living go.

Ivan Palychuk grows up knowing his father was killed by the Hutyenyuks — and that the girl he loves, Marichka, is that family's daughter. Ivan Mykolaychuk and Larisa Kadochnikova carry the film with a restraint that makes the tragedy land harder. After Marichka dies, Ivan keeps living, marries, works his land. But something in him never recovers.

Parajanov built a visual language out of folk rituals, hand-held camera spins, and saturated color — a style that influenced generations of filmmakers. The film claimed the Grand Prix at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in 1965 and is widely regarded as one of the defining works of world cinema. Stream Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) online on iFILM.