The film is a surrealist metaphor of the human existence’s meaning. And the tragic depiction of the destruction that ruins traditional Ukrainian society in the mid-20th century. The story of deep, humanistic values and a try to find them inside oneself.

Wednesday / 20.04.2016 / 20:00

New Horizons Art House Cinema, 19a-21 Kazimierza Wielkiego St

Admission is free

Ukraine (USSR), 1965, 74 min.
Color: black and white
Language: Ukrainian / Russian
Director: Yuriy Illienko
Screenplay: Ivan Drach
Dir. photography: Yuri Illienko, Vladimir Davydov
Edition: Natalia Pyschykova
Music: Leonid Grabovskiy
Starring: Dmitri Milyutenko, Larisa Kadochnikova,Nina Alisova
Production: Dovzhenko Film Studio

The story of an elderly man-philosopher Levko Serdyuk who lives alone in his ramshackle home in a Ukrainian village and cares about the well, where villagers and travelers pause for a drink of water. His sons are concerned with their own affairs, they’ve forgotten about the father and deceased mother. Levko seems to be haunted by the past: he is constantly recollecting the death of his son-soldier, the time when his family left home. He thinks how ruthless world interferes in village life, depriving people of congenital purity and identity.

Illienko’s film is both a beautiful and dramatic symbol of the loss and the attempts to renew a moral human core. The film serves an excellent example of dense symbolism, the film’s narrative is minimal as well as dialogues, making way for enigmatic scenes that challenge the viewer’s sense of time and reality.

The film was completed in 1965 but not released; it was banned in the USSR for its suspected anti Soviet symbolism.

Yuriy Illienko
Born in 1936.Oneof the most influential Ukrainian filmmakers. Virtuoso screenwriter and cameraman. One of the main representatives of the Ukrainian "poetic cinema" world known cultural phenomenon. During the World War II he and his family were evacuated to Siberia. He graduated from the high school in Moscow and in 1960, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. His films were banned in the USSR, soviet censorship defined his films as "masterpieces harmful to people". His films were re-released only during glasnost period, they were highly appraised by the world critics. In 1987 Illienko was honoured the title of People's Artist of Ukraine. His 1990 film Swan Lake "The Zone" has won the FIPRESCI Prize. In 1991 he was awarded the Shevchenko National Prize. His 1994 documentary about Sergey Parajanov has won the Golden Knight at the Cinema City film festival. Member of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine (since 1996). Yuriy Illienko died on the 15thof June 2010

Filmography (selected):
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, director of photography (1965)
St. John's Eve / Vechir na Ivana Kupala, director (1968)
The White Bird Marked with Black, director (1970)
Swan Lake "The Zone", director (1990)
A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa, director, actor (2002)

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