Image Credit: Museum of the Moving Image
Born in 1926 to Armenian parents in multicultural Tbilisi, Georgia, Sergei Parajanov was a filmmaker unlike any other, a versatile genius with the moving image distinguished through atmospheric mise-en-scène, sumptuous colors, opulent settings, and unforgettable imagery. Already a trained musician in violin and song before he attended Moscow’s prestigious VGIK (All-Union State Institute of Cinematography) at the age of 21, Parajanov first broke through when he broke with the U.S.S.R.’s socialist realist doctrine with his seminal Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964) and his crown-jewel The Color of Pomegranates (1968). Increasingly outspoken against the Soviet regime, Parajanov would see many of his scripts rejected by state authorities, and he would be arrested and imprisoned several times over the subsequent decades, though his international esteem grew to the level of myth. Parajanov passed away in July 1990. “With the death of Sergei Parajanov cinema lost one of its magicians,” wrote Federico Fellini. MoMI is proud to present a selection of the greatest works of this revolutionary artist and humanist on the occasion of his centenary.