Why so much hype?

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Definitely visually stunning and the camera work and editing was full of energy. The narrative style kind of reminds me of Brazilian Cinema Novo works: the sometimes desperate, brash, loud line delivery, the magical realism, and the kind of hallucinatory style of story-telling. This movie definitely needs to be watched at least once to process some parts. I've seen some describe the main narrative as Romeo and Juliet but that's kind of unfair on the Juliet of this story because Romeo definitely stayed way longer than she did.

From the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is where I found this Ukrainian film, of course like so many of the other foreign film entries I never heard of it before reading about it, but I hoped it was worthy of that placing, directed by Sergei Parajanov (The Colour of Pomegranates). Basically in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine is a small Hutsul village, since childhood Ivan (Ivan Mykolaichuk) and Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova) known each other, and as young adults they have fallen in love, Marichka is the daughter of the man who killed Ivan's father, their families are hostile toward each other. Ivan leaves the village to find work and earn money for he and Marichka to marry and make a household, unfortunately while trying to rescue a lost lamb Marichka slips into a river and drowns, Ivan returns to find her body and falls into despair, he continues to work in joyless toil. That is until, while shoeing a horse, he meets Palagna (Tatyana Bestayeva), they later marry in a traditional Hutsul wedding, blindfolded and harnessed together, but Ivan remains by the memory of Marichka and the marriage turns sour quickly, while her distant and experiencing hallucinations Palagna becomes involved with local Yurko the Sorcerer (Spartak Bagashvili). Ivan witnesses the sorcerer and Palagna embracing and one his friends being struck, roused into uncharacteristic fury Ivan threatens with his axe, but he is struck down the sorcerer, he ends up stumbling into the woods and perceives Marichka's spirit being with him, reflected in water and gliding among trees. Reality merges into a dream and Ivan believes that Marichka's hand is outstretched to reach his, at this point he falls into the great space in front, screaming to his death, Ivan is given a traditional Hutsul burial by the community, with children watching from windows. I will admit that having to read subtitles at the time as the action made it difficult for me to follow everything going on, but I could definitely hallucinatory moments with the shaky camera movement, interesting manipulations and cutting and its use of strange sounds, I really like the scenery and use of colour as well, it is a disorientating, unusual expressionistic and quite watchable drama. Good!

The first major movie by the Georgian-born Armenian director Sergei Paradjanov (he has made some movies before that few people have seen, and they are apparently in the conventional Soviet style). This is set in a village in Western Ukraine, in the forested Carphatian Mountains, among the Hutsul ethnic group. The movie has a great opening, as a man is killed by a falling tree over a snow-covered mountain, with a POV from the top of the tree. After that, you get Paradjanov, with its frantic mixture of ethnography, folklore, religion, odd camera movements, music, dance, color. Among all this, a sort of plot emerges, with the story of the crazy love between Ivan and Marichka, a couple belonging to feuding families, and of Ivan's life and marriage with another woman called Palagna after Marichka's tragic death. The era in which the action takes place is never determined, though one suspects it is some centuries ago. On the whole, I like Paradjanov's future feature The Color of Pomegranates better, which I think it's far more accomplished, but I this is very much well worth seeing to any cinema lover.

Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors is set in Western Ukraine (Carpathian mountains) circa the 1860's. It was banned in the USSR because it emphasized the unique Ukrainian culture and in fact the language throughout the film was Ukrainian and not Russian. Plus the references to the Church and religion could not have helped. The story is deceptively simple. As a child, Ivan falls in love with his neighbor and fathers killers daughter Marichka. The first half of the film deals with that love and the second with Ivan's downfall after she dies in an accident.Shadows would probably not appeal to someone looking for great acting, strong characterizations and emotional pull. But, it more than makes up for these deficiencies in its visual brilliance and authenticity of periodic detail. This is one of the most beautiful looking films ever made. The elaborate costumes, the folk songs and simple village life all create a world that you know just had to have existed. Not exactly commercial fare, Shadows is a stunningly beautiful looking film and in fact a lesson in old Ukrainain culture. I highly recommend this for art-house film fans.