In celebration of a recent acquisition for the PFA Collection of a new 35mm print of Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, on two Saturdays this month we present works by Sergei Paradjanov, certainly the greatest director of the postwar era in the former Soviet Union, and one of the world's consummate film artists. Paradjanov (1924-1990) was born in Georgia, of Armenian descent. In his Ukranian masterpiece, as Yvette Biro's writes, "Paradjanov was the first to indicate the degree to which folklore and local artistic tradition could once again become a source of visual wealth in Soviet national cinema....Set in the beautiful but fierce Carpathian mountains...in an environment of overwhelming Christian-pagan rituals, demonology, and constant struggle with overpowering elements, where life is but 'a lightning in the sky, a cherry blossom...,' a story of love unfolds. Sensitive, perhaps over-sensitive for his environment, Ivanko is in search of happiness. Nature kills his brother and takes his loved one; man kills his father and sends Ivanko himself to the world beyond, perhaps to realize his wish to be with his beloved forever. Paradjanov succeeded in creating a highly poetic film in the tradition of Dovzhenko, adopting the great master's use of symbolism and metaphor, and his lyric photography; cinematographer Ilyenko's dynamically active camera is suited to the requirements of his energetic and temperamental character."-Yvette Biro