Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
- Larissa Kadotschnikowa: Maritschka
- Ivan Mikolaitschuk: Ivan
- Nikolai Grinko: Watag
- Spartak Bagaschwili: Jurko
- Tatjana Bestajewa: Palagna
Fire Horse (Ukrainian Тіні забутих предків, Russian Тени забытых предков, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors literally ) is a Soviet film from 1964 of the Armenian director Sergei Parajanov based on a novel by Mykhailo Kozjubynsky. This film is Paradschanows first big film that brought him international recognition for its visual intensity. Since he violated one of the first poetic films in the Soviet Union against the legally prescribed socialist realism, Parajanov was imprisoned despite official commendation for several years and banned the film from the movie theaters.
Action
In a small village in the Carpathian Hutsul in love the young Ivan, despite the bitter enmity of families in Maritschka, the man who murdered his father 's daughter. In order to marry Maritschka, Ivan leaves the village to look for work, with which he wants to finance its budget. During his absence, however Maritschka drowns in a river. The desperate Ivan works still further until he met during his work Palagna. They married after the Hutsul traditions, but the marriage fails quickly because Ivan is still obsessed by the memory of Maritschka. As the emotionally distanced Ivan now also falls into hallucinations, Palagna who wants children to regain Ivan's attention with magic tried. However Palagna gets himself under the influence of the magician. When Ivan looks in a pump room, like the Wizard Palagna hugs, he falls into a rage and attacks at the wizard with an ax. The magician then pulls out his own ax and injured Ivan, then flees into a nearby forest. In the forest Ivan hallucinates again and looks Maritschkas spirit among the trees and in the water reflections. As Maritschkas mind him shake hands, Ivan lets out a scream and dies. The film ends with a traditional funeral Ivan.
Reviews
"One of the Julia motive Romeo and abwandelnde old legend of the Hutsul is interwoven with the rich and strange folklore of this pastoral people from the Carpathian Mountains. The reveling in cascades of color camera can revive in all its wild beauty of an unspoiled mystical past. "
Awards
Fire horses in 1965 awarded the Grand Prize at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata, the film festival in Rome and the price of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.