A major foreshadowing of Paradjanov’s later work, the visually prodigious Andriesh, based on a Moldovan folk tale, is an entertaining tale about a young shepherd who is given a magic shawm (a flutelike instrument) to help him conquer his foes. With its flying sheep, evil wizards, and storm demons—all captured in the gloriously artifical palette of fifties Soviet color stock—Andriesh has the kind of eye-popping, whirlwind weirdness of Paradjanov’s last films, Suram Fortress and Ashik Kerib.

DVD-R IS IN RUSSIAN WITH SWITCHABLE ENGLISH SUBTITLES

QUALITY (of feature film only):   very good film quality with some pixellization issues

LENGTH OF FEATURE FILM:  58 mins.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SWITCHABLE (SOFT) SUBTITLES WILL NOT SHOW UP WHEN VIEWING THE SAMPLE BELOW.  IF YOU SEE SUBTITLES, THEN THEY ARE HARD-ENCODED (meaning, they cannot be turned off when viewing the film):