Sergei Parajanov’s global breakthrough – a film which galvanized a new generation of filmmakers not only in Ukraine but throughout the Eastern Bloc – remains a potent blend of bravura filmmaking and spellbinding folklore., Parajanov adapts Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s 1911 novel about a snow-bound Romeo and Julie tragedy among the Hutsul people of western Ukraine. But in Parajanov’s hands, this ageless story becomes a transcendental cinematic experience infused with poetry, song, dance and paganist folklore. Shot in the rugged Carpathian region by Yuri Ilyenko, the film is rightly renowned for the delirious abandon of its cinematography. “A tale of blood feuds, sorcery, and star-crossed love-that’s not so much lyric as lysergic… overwhelmingly beautiful”- J. Hoberman.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

Cost: $10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)