In a small Hutsul village in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine, a young boy, Ivan, falls in love with the daughter of the man who killed his father. Though their families share a bitter enmity, Ivan and Marichka have known each other since childhood. In preparation for their marriage, Ivan leaves the village to work and earn money for a household. While he is gone, Marichka accidentally slips into a river and drowns. Ivan returns and falls into despair after seeing her body. He continues to work, enduring a period of joyless toil, until he meets another woman, Palagna, while shoeing a horse. Ivan and Palagna get married in a traditional Hutsul wedding in which they are blindfolded and yoked together. The marriage quickly turns sour, however, as Ivan remains obsessed with the memory of Marichka. Estranged from her emotionally distant husband, Palagna pursues a local sorcerer while Ivan begins to experience hallucinations. At a drinking hall, Ivan witnesses the sorcerer embrace Palagna and strike one of his friends. Roused into an uncharacteristic fury, Ivan snatches up his axe, only to be struck down by the sorcerer. Ivan stumbles into the nearby woods and perceives Marichka’s spirit to be with him, reflected in the water and gliding amongst the trees. As reality melds into dream, the colorless shade of Marichka reaches out across a great space and touches Ivan’s outstretched hand. Ivan screams and dies. The community gives him a traditional Hutsul burial while children watch through crossbraced windows.

[edit] Themes

The film is highly symbolic, making frequent use of religious and folkloric images that include crosses, lambs, graves, and spirits. The film also uses color to represent mood. During Ivan’s period of mourning, black and white film stock is used. In other scenes, colors are often muted, but provide a contrast to vivid use of red and yellow. This color palette gives a sense of underlying passion and struggle against destiny.^[1] On its release, the film’s presentation contrasted with the common social realism style that had government approval. After refusing to change the film, Parajanov was soon blacklisted from Soviet cinema.^[2]