4K UHD, Blu-ray Release: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

By
Laurence
– November 6, 2026Find Others: Blu-ray, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

4K UHD, Blu-ray Release Date: Nov. 17, 2026
Price: 4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo $34.99, Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Criterion Collection

A towering achievement of world cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s (The Color of Pomegranates) 1965 modernist landmark Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors fuses folkloric traditions, animistic mysticism, and hallucinatory visual invention.

Adapted from a 1911 novella by Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors follows Ivanko (Ivan Mykolaichuk), a young Hutsul peasant who experiences both the depths of grief and glimmers of hope as he attempts to move beyond his first love, Marichka (an ethereal Larysa Kadochnykova).

Steeped in the earthy atmosphere of the Carpathian Mountains, and featuring kinetic, radiantly colorful cinematography by Yuri Illienko and a collage-like experimental soundtrack, Parajanov’s film is a singularly mythopoeic work of art.

The 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions of the film contain the following:

  • New 4K digital restoration by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • New audio commentary featuring historian Joshua First
  • New introduction by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project founder Martin Scorsese
  • New interview with actor Larysa Kadochnykova
  • The Lilac Wind of Paradjanov (2025), a feature documentary by Ali Khamraev
  • Shadowsur (2026), an experimental short film by Martiros Vartanov about director Sergei Parajanov’s son
  • New English subtitle translation
  • An essay by critic Carmen Gray
Buy or Rent Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.