Sergei Parajanov (January 9, 1924 – July 20, 1990) was an Armenian film director, who was noted in world cinema for his artful and idiosyncratic take on filmmaking.
Born in Soviet Georgia to Armenian parents, Parajanov became an assistant director at the Dovzhenko studios in Kyiv, making his directorial debut in 1954, following that with numerous shorts and features, all of which he subsequently dismissed as "garbage", as they all had been made according to the prevailing style of Soviet socialist realism. In 1965 he was able to make Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, a radical depiction of Ukrainian folk culture, and the world was introduced to a unique new filmmaker.
He followed this up with the even more innovative The Color of Pomegranates in 1969, which explored the art and poetry of native Armenian poet Sayat Nova in a series of picturesque tableaux, but by this stage the authorities had had enough, and Paradjanov spent most of the 1970s in prison on false charges of "homosexuality and illegal trafficking in religious icons". However, with the coming of perestroika and the protests of other noted world filmmakers such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Federico Fellini, he was able to continue making films before succumbing to cancer in 1990.
Selected Filmography:
- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)
- The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
- The Legend of Suram Fortress (1985)
- Ashik Kerib (1988)
