Sergei Parajanov Double Feature
In October 2025, Archives on Screen will highlight the work of Ukrainian-Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors will screen at Trylon Cinema and The Color of Pomegranates will screen at Macalester College. Follow Archives on Screen on social media for more information.
SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS
October 16 at 7 PM
Trylon Cinema 2820 E. 33rd St, Minneapolis, MN (purchase tickets)
(1965, DCP, 96m, Ukrainian with English subtitles) dir Sergei Parajanov Widely considered the most important film in the history of Ukrainian cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors is a masterwork that boldly combines folkloric pageantry, fairy tale mysticism, and frenetic, hallucinatory cinematography. Adapted from Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s novel, Shadows tells the story of Ivan (Ivan Mykolaichuk), a young Hutsul peasant who is plagued by loss. When he meets Palahna (Tatyana Bestayeva), a woman who restores his faith in life and hope, his past returns to haunt him. Parjanov and cinematographer Yuri Ilyenko capture the stunning atmosphere of the Carpathian mountains through innovative camera movement and vivid color, and composer Myroslav Skoryk’s collage-like score brings together Ukrainian folk melodies with modernist, experimental orchestration. It is one of cinema’s singular productions, capturing the spiritual majesty of the past by creatively forging the medium’s future.
Print provided by Janus Films. Restored in 4K by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre and in association with the Dovzhenko Film Studio. Special thanks to Daniel Bird and Łukasz Ceranka. Fundings provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES
October 29 at 7 PM
John B. Davis Lecture Hall, Campus Center, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave, St. Paul, MN (free tickets at door)
(1969, Blu-Ray, 78m, Soviet Union, Armenian/Georgian/Azerbaijani with English subtitles) dir Sergei Parajanov A breathtaking fusion of poetry, ethnography, and cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s masterwork overflows with unforgettable images and sounds. In a series of tableaux that blend the tactile with the abstract, The Color of Pomegranates revives the splendors of Armenian culture through the story of the eighteenth-century troubadour Sayat-Nova, charting his intellectual, artistic, and spiritual growth through iconographic compositions rather than traditional narrative. The film’s tapestry of folklore and metaphor departed from the realism that dominated the Soviet cinema of its era, leading authorities to block its distribution, with rare underground screenings presenting it in a restructured form. This edition features the cut closest to Parajanov’s original vision, in a restoration that brings new life to one of cinema’s most enigmatic meditations on art and beauty.
The Color of Pomegranates was restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna, in association with the National Cinema Centre of Armenia and Gosfilmofond of Russia, and funded by the Material World Charitable Foundation.
Archives on Screen, Twin Cities 