The Color of Pomegranates
At the crossroads of avant-garde, folk tale and pictorial art, Armenian director Sergueï Paradjanov's dreamlike, independent-minded cinema - the antithesis of socialist realism - drew the wrath of the Soviet regime, but has always been admired by cinephiles worldwide - all the way to Lady Gaga, who recently paid tribute to him in one of her music videos. We invite you to rediscover his two masterpieces, The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova) and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, in beautiful 35mm prints from our collections.
A true cinematic oddity, The Color of Pomegranates evokes the life of the great Armenian poet Sayat Nova (1717-1795) in a series of tableaux.
Sergei Parajanov
Sergei Parajanov was an Armenian film director and screenwriter. He is regarded by film critics, film historians and filmmakers to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in cinema history. He invented his own cinematic style, which was out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism; the only sanctioned art style in the USSR. This, combined with his lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him, and suppress his films. Despite this, Parajanov was named one of the 20 Film Directors of the Future by the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 1987 and his films were ranked among the greatest films of all time by Sight & Sound. His films also won many awards at festivals around the world.
