Sergei Parajanov
Director

Biography
Date of birth: 9 January 1924, Tiflis, Georgia, Soviet Union (now Tbilisi, Georgia).
Date of death: 21 July 1990, Yerevan, Armenia, Soviet Union (Cancer).
He was born in Georgia in Armenian family. It was always unlikely that the work of S.Paradjanov would conform to the strict socialism realism that the Soviet authorities preferred. After studying film and music, he became an assistant director at the Dovzhenko studio in Kiev, making his debut in 1954, which he followed with numerous shorts and features, all of which he subsequently dismissed as “garbage”. However, in 1964 he was able to make “Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors”, 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” (which explored the art and poetry of Armenia in a series of stunningly beautiful tableaux), but by this stage the authorities had had enough, and S.Paradjanov spent most of the 1970s in prison on almost certainly rigged charges of “homosexuality and illegal trade in religious icons”. However, with the coming of perestroika, he was able to make two further films before succumbing from cancer in 1990.

Filmography

1. Moldovskaya skazka (1951) (Director)
…aka Moldavian Tale, A

2. Andriyesh (1954) (Director)

3. Zolotye ruki (1957) (Director)
...aka Golden Hands

4. Natalya Ushvij (1957) (Director)

5. Dumka (1957) (Director)

6. Pervyj paren (1959) (Director)
…aka First Lad, The

7. Ukrainskaya rapsodia (1961) (Director)
…aka Ukrainian Rhapsody

8. Tsvetok na kamne (1962) (Director)
…aka Flower on the Stone

9. Teni zabitykh predkov (1964) (Director) (Writer)
…aka Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

10. Hakop Hovnatanian (1965) (Director)

11. Sayat nova (1968) (Director) (Writer) (editor) (Choreographer)
…aka Red Pomegranate

12. Parajanov: Color of Armenian Soil (1969) (Actor…Himself)

13. Cinématon (1984) (Actor)

14. Ambavi Suramis Tsikheze (1984) (Director)
…aka Legend of the Suram Fortress, The

15. Arabeskebi Pirosmanis temaze (1985) (Director)
…aka Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme

16. Ashug Qeribi (1988) (Director)
…aka Hoary Legends of the Caucasus, The

17. Confession, The (1990) (Director) (Writer)

18. Lebedyne ozero-zona (1990) (Writer)
..aka Swan Lake: The Zone

19. Parajanov: the Last Spring (1992) (Writer) (Actor…Himself)