Released in 1969, The Color of Pomegranates by Sergei Parajanov is his best known masterpiece. Commenting on the film, Martin Scorsese said, “I didn’t know any more about Sayat-Nova at the end of the picture than I knew at the beginning, but instead what Parajanov did was he opened a door into a timeless cinematic experience.”
Parajanov is considered among the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. After studying film and music, he made his directorial debut in 1954. In 1964 he directed Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. As the Soviet Union was threatened by his filmmaking and perspectives, they imprisoned Parajanov for most of the 1970s. After his release, due to international outcry, and owing to Perestroika, Parajanov directed The Legend of Suram Fortress, Ashik Kerib, and The Confession, which survives as Parajanov: The Last Spring.
“In a series of tableaux that blend the tactile with the abstract, The Color of Pomegranates revives the splendors of Armenian culture through the story of the eighteenth-century troubadour Sayat-Nova, charting his intellectual, artistic, and spiritual growth through iconographic compositions rather than traditional narrative.”
From the Criterion Collection
The USSR labeled Parajanov a subversive, fearing that his films would embolden independence movements.
Parajanov was bisexual and the USSR arrested him for it in 1973. He spent four years in prison. His sexuality, like Yeghishe Charents’, is often erased by Armenia and the Armenian community, even today. After his release from prison in 1977, it would take another 7 years before he was allowed to direct again.
The film is available on DVD and Blu-Ray, and as of November 2020 is available to rent/purchase on Amazon Prime.
