Yuri Ilyenko

Yuri Ilyenko (1936-2010) was a Ukrainian film director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. One of Ukraine’s most influential filmmakers, he was a pioneer of so-called “poetic cinema” and the Ukrainian New Wave. His films detailed Ukraine’s rich history and tradition, as well as its precarious contemporary political position. Known internationally mainly for his unforgettable work as Sergei Parajanov’s cinematographer on Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965), the film which launched Sergei Parajanov’s career, Ilyenko’s ventures as a director were equally inspired, among them The Eve of Ivan Kupalo (1968) and A Strip of Uncut Wildflowers (1979). The White Bird Marked with Black became one of the principal films of the Ukrainian Poetic Cinema movement. The White Bird Marked with Black won the main prize at Moscow International Film Festival in 1971.