A Spring for the Thirsty - Instytut Pileckiego

Screening of the legendary silent film, forbidden in the UDSSR, now with added live music!

"A spring for the Thirsty" is a surreal Ukrainian feature film which featured two debuts: Ivan Drach as a screenwriter and Yuri Ilyenko as a director. The film was shot in 1965 but it was immediately banned and thus could not be screened until 1987.

The plot of the story is rife with metaphorical, allegorical symbolic dimensions. It includes numerous themes, mainly related to the the dramatic life of Levko Serdyuk, an elderly peasant philosopher. The older man constantly relives his memories and reflects upon them: He thinks back to when his relatives left their home, his son-soldier dead and constantly finds himself reflecting about the nature of governmental power and how it deprives people of their original identity.

The film demands and urges us not to put up with losing your morality because in the process you may easily lose your humanity, too. The grandiose metaphorical theater of this tragedy: when the family is destroyed, the very ecology of its habitation perishes.

Because the film is practically a silent film, we have invited two musicians to the concert. Max Smogol and Maryana Golovko will perform live music serving as the motion picture soundtrack. The screening of the film will be introduced by a lecture about the historical background of this movie and will further reveal why this film was "verboten".