Sergei Parajanov(1924-1990)
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema Sergei Parajanov
was born in Georgia to Armenian parents and it was always unlikely that
his work would conform to the strict socialist realism that Soviet
authorities preferred. After studying film and music, Parajanov became
an assistant director at the Dovzhenko studios in Kiev, making his
directorial debut in 1954, following that with numerous shorts and
features, all of which he subsequently dismissed as "garbage". However,
in 1964 he was able to make Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965), a rhapsodic celebration of
Ukrainian folk culture, and the world discovered a startling and
idiosyncratic new talent. He followed this up with the even more
innovative The Color of Pomegranates (1969) (which explored the art and poetry of his native
Armenia in a series of stunningly beautiful tableaux), but by this
stage the authorities had had enough, and Paradjanov spent most of the
1970s in prison on almost certainly rigged charges of "homosexuality
and illegal trafficking in religious icons". However, with the coming
of perestroika, he was able to make The Legend of Suram Fortress (1985), Ashik Kerib (1988) and The Confession, which survives as Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992), before succumbing
to cancer in 1990.
