The Reinterpretation of Folk Traditions of Christmas Masks in Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and Mykolaichuk’s Such a Late, Such a Warm Autumn

This study investigates the cinematic treatment of Carpathian winter masquerade rituals in Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) and Ivan Mykolaichuk’s Such a Late, Such a Warm Autumn (1981). Rather than functioning as ethnographic illustration or decorative folklore, the ritual mask operates as a dynamic cinematic instrument mediating crises, transitions, and the articulation of otherwise inexpressible experiences. In Parajanov, masquerade is embedded within a cosmological logic that overrides individual agency: masks visually dissolve subjectivity, and liminal moments—Christmas and death—activate forces beyond human control. Here, masks do not facilitate communication or action but manifest existential threshold states, ultimately marking exclusion from the cycles of life. By contrast, Mykolaichuk repurposes the same ritual complex to emphasize personal and social communication. Temporal compression, the layering of historical strata, and the coexistence of archaic and Soviet-era masquerade figures render the ritual a space for overcoming social and personal muteness. Masks function both as protective shells and as enablers of speech, allowing characters to express emotions, assert agency, and negotiate relational dynamics otherwise constrained by social norms. Comparative analysis reveals how a single ritual form can be adapted in cinema to produce radically different effects on how subjectivity is made visible and expressed. The study demonstrates that cinematic engagement with traditional masquerade does not merely reproduce folk practice but creatively translates its internal logic into narrative, symbolic, and aesthetic terms, producing layered meanings accessible to both initiated and general audiences.