Sergei Parajanov

Armenian filmmaker Sergei PARAJANOV (1924, Georgia – 1990, Armenia) studied film at the VGIK in Moscow and made his first feature in 1954 (Andriesh). The Color of Pomegranates (1969) is considered one of the best films ever made in world cinema and Antonioni described it being of “a of a stunningly perfect beauty”. In 1987, his film The Legend of Suram Fortress received the Rotterdam Award at IFFR for the most innovative film. Parajanov paid a heavy price for his outspoken criticism of Soviet cinema and the authorities: Soviet film studios rejected all his projects after The Color of Pomegranates and he was sentenced to five years in a Ukrainian prison in 1974. A wave of international protests by the likes of Truffaut, Buñuel, Pasolini and Antonioni followed. Parajanov’s art works – assemblages, collages, drawings – were mostly created during his imprisonment. The last feature Parajanov completed was Ashik Kerib (1988), selected by Venice and New York, which won the European Film Academy Award (European Director).