“A master of Ukrainian poetic cinema, Yuri Ilyenko gained world-wide acclaim as the cinematographer of Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. As a director, he stands proudly in the anti-realist tradition of Dovzhenko: of his nine films, all but one were banned until last year, when A Spring for the Thirsty stunned SFIFF audiences. The Eve of Ivan Kupalo-based on Gogol’s rendering of a Ukrainian folk tale-is probably Ilyenko’s most inspired and experimental work. The opposite of what one expects from a film taken from peasant mythology, it is neither quaint nor corny, and doesn’t depend on broad acting and hearty singing. Suffused with the earthly pantheism of a half-pagan Christianity, Ilyenko’s film celebrates the unbridled passions of a people linked to nature and the rites of the seasons, to animals and the spirits of the forests. The story-a young peasant’s pact with the evil spirit in order to win the hand of a rich man’s daughter-is a simple parable of the evil power of gold over man. The cinematic treatment is dazzlingly complex, a series of astonishing and inventive images-boldly composed in color Cinemascope-married to an equally ambitious sound montage of music and stylized effects.”
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