Rodnik Dlia Zhazhdushchikh
USSR,
1965, 70 min
Shown in 1988
CREDITS
- dir
-
Yuri Ilyenko
- scr
-
Ivan Dratsch
- cam
-
Yuri Ilyenko
- cast
-
Dimitri Miliutenko, Larissa Kadotchnikova
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Yuri Ilyenko in person.
OTHER
Ukrainian Yuri Ilyenko was cameraman for Paradjanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and, as director, made The White Bird with the Black Mark (SFIFF 1972). His eight other features were banned until now. Deborah Young of Variety writes, “This 1965 work is one of the more important shelved films now being released in the USSR. A Spring for the Thirsty offers an austere impression of the life of an old man and some members of his family on the edge of a desert. Splendidly shot in black-and-white, it is visually experimental to the point of abstraction, a film for connoisseurs rather than the general public, but unquestionably top of its class. Life revolves around a well, where the occasional passerby comes to drink. A montage of faces shows all the people whose thirst has been slaked. During the war, a soldier is shot at the well. Later, a grim war memorial is erected, while an old woman cries. The film conveys an overwhelming impression of sadness; besides a house and the well, the only piece of scenery in this desolate wasteland is a sandy graveyard. Ilyenko’s expressive images sometimes veer toward surrealism, at other times take on an almost documentary realism. Though practically a silent film, A Spring for the Thirsty uses sound inventively in contrast to the image—falling trees, for example, or kids shouting in the middle of the desert.”
FACTOID #61
The first repertory film screened at Festival was The Bluebird (1940), based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s play, showed October 23, 1965, with Shirley Temple Black in person to discuss her role in the film.
