Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.
I remember my first foray into the work of Sergei Parajanov. I’d love to say I remember it fondly, but that would be a lie. In fact, that was such a weird experience that it’s taken me this long to get to his second film on the list, Tini Zabutkyh Predkiv (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors). The good news for those of us not well-versed in the tradition of Armenian surrealism is that unlike Sayat Nova, Tini Zabutkyh Predkiv is more than just a collection of surreal images and unexplained nonsense. There’s an actual story here that can be followed.
What’s important here is not what I have said, but what I haven’t said. Yes, there is a narrative here, but that doesn’t mean that this film is easy to understand. Yes, it’s far more coherent than Sayat Nova, but that doesn’t make it coherent. And none of this means that I got anything out of watching it. No, there’s a part of me that certainly wishes I had knocked this one out a year ago if only so I didn’t spend part of today watching it.
