Home where movie lives

Film director Sergei Parajanov first showed the finished film to Hutsuls from Verkhovyna and Kryvorivnia, who starred in it. The first screening took place on August 24, 1965. In September that year the official presentation of the movie was held in Kyiv, where Ivan Dziuba, Vasyl Stus, and Viacheslav Chornovil gave their speeches criticizing the arrests of the intellectuals which occurred in the summer of 1965. Their letter was signed by 140 people and the reaction of the authorities was rapid. Meanwhile, the world admired the fairy tale film with surreal scenes. In 1965 it received the highest award at the International Film Festival in Argentina and at the International Film Festival in Rome. The following year, Sergei Parajanov won a gold medal at the International Film Festival in Thessaloniki. The year 1966 also brought the jury prize at the All-Union Film Festival in Kyiv. In subsequent years there were also many awards – the total of 65, 28 of them being international.

These facts are presented at the Museum of the Film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors in Verhovyna, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. A Hutsul home, where film director Parajanov lived during the film shooting (the script was written by Parajanov and Transcarpathian writer Ivan Chendei), is still preserved there. It seems that in this home of Petro and Yevdokia Soriuk the spirit of creativity, Hutsul authenticity, and some special creative atmosphere are still present nowadays.

“The film was made for the 100th anniversary of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky in the place where he wrote his famous novel – in Kryvorivnia, in our village of Zhabie, since this used to be the name of Verkhovyna,” told tour guide Halyna Mokan. “In 1963 the film crew came here and they all stayed in a hotel in the city center. Sergei Parajanov loved to go for a walk in the neighborhood, looking for places to shoot. Once there occurred a conflict between him and operator Yurii Illienko: one of them thought that everything had to be filmed the way it was described in the novel by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, while the other argued that they had to add something to their film… After this argument Parajanov went for a walk and went up passing by the home of the Soriuks. The owner was outside doing some work, a stranger politely greeted him and was invited to the house.

“Parajanov admitted that he would like to live in an atmosphere of an authentic Hutsul home, experience the everyday life style, eat the same food, and the Soriuks offered him their front room – a room used by Hutsuls only on major holidays, while the owner and his wife lived in a smaller room with a big stove. The next day Parajanov brought all of his belongings to the home of the Soriuks.”

That big stove has been preserved in the house to this day, it has the same benches and the table – the same atmosphere that was here in the 1960s. The only thing missing is the large “iron bed” with springs on which Parajanov slept.

This house keeps the memory of a great love, of Hutsul Romeo and Juliet – Marichka Huteniukova and Ivanko Paliychukov, described in the novel and the film. The photos on the walls shine with the smiles of the actors – “Bukovyna Hutsul” Ivan Mykolaichuk, for whom this was his first role in a film, Larysa Kadochnykova – already known at the time actress of the Moscow theater “Sovremennik,” Tetiana Bestaieva (Palatna), Spartak Bahashvili (sorcerer Yura), owners of the house Yevdokia and Petro Soriuks in their Hutsul costumes.

“When Parajanov brought the film to Verkhovyna, it was a great joy to people,” Halyna Mokan continued her story. “For the first time they saw themselves on a big screen, admired the places where they walked every day without noticing its real beauty. After the film screening there was a great enthusiasm among the people, many of them came to the home of the Soriuks and together with Parajanov they all feasted at this table… After that Parajanov never came again to Hutsul region.”

Some of the people, who starred in the film, still live in Verkhovyna. Hanna Boichuk, who went to Kyiv for shooting some episodes and recording sound to the film, recalls: “After we arrived Parajanov took us all to Saint Volodymyr’s Cathedral and gave us all candles. We kneeled and began praying. The next day people working at the studio all knew about it. They wanted to punish Parajanov but we protested: we said that we would not act and record the sound to the film. We explained them that this is the way things work among Hutsuls: we begin every new job with a prayer, that’s why we did the same here. Parajanov was left alone for some time.”