"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" Film House Museum, Verkhovyna
A Hutsul house in Verkhovyna where Sergei Parajanov lived while shooting "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors".
The house museum is in Verkhovyna, in the Hutsul house of Petro and Yevdokiia Soriuk. Here the director Sergei Parajanov lived for seven months in 1963–1964, while shooting the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors". The cinematographer Yurii Illienko, the artist Heorhii Yakutovych and the actors also stayed in the house. The museum was founded in 2000, and the exhibition was opened in 2001 by Mariia Khimchych, the daughter of the owners of the house. Among the exhibits are the wedding gugla (a Hutsul wool cloak) of the film's protagonist, photographs from the shoot, Hutsul clothing and household objects. Verkhovyna is the former Zhabie: from 1927 its village head for twelve years was the Hutsul writer Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv, who in 1911 helped Kotsiubynsky gather material for “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” — the novella on which the film is based.
The hamlet of Zhabievskyi Potik on the outskirts of Verkhovyna, about 0.5 km from the centre (verkhovyna.life). Visits by arrangement, ticket 20 UAH, schoolchildren 15 UAH (karpaty.guide, 27.07.2025); tel. (097) 759-90-33 (verkhovyna.life). Call before your trip.