THE SPRING FOR THE THIRSTY

An old Ukrainian peasant gets ready to die. But when his sons return to him he awakes to new life and repairs an old ruined well. The film does without a traditional plot, instead poetically linking allegoric situations with surreal bucolic stylings. In 1966, Sergo Paradshanov – for whose SHADOWS OF OUR FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS Jurij Illenko worked behind the camera – defended this film which had been banned until 1987 at a studio debate: “If I were asked to show an exemplary film, I would choose this film by scriptwriter Drač and director Illenko. One has to admit that he at last is a major new phenomenon of this studio named after Dovženko(...). I haven’t seen anything like it in my 12 year working career and am happy that the Dovženko-Studio now obviously seriously turns towards the ethnical folklore, the ethnical typage, the poetry, the cinema.“