Renowned filmmaker and scriptwriter Sergei Parajanov’s 90th birthday anniversary

Today, on January 9, the renowned film director and scriptwriter Sergei Parajanov would turn 90.

He was born in 1924, and liked theater and cinema when he was a child. In 1952, he graduated from the Production Department of the All-Russian State University of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov.

His disposition was reflected in his films. In 1964, he made the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, based on the classic book by Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. The film is highly symbolic, making frequent use of religious and folkloric images that include crosses, lambs, graves, and spirits. It also uses color to represent mood. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors won a number of international awards.

Another film by Parajanov, The Color of Pomegranates, is a biography of the Armenian ashug Sayat-Nova (King of Song) that attempts to reveal the poet's life visually and poetically rather than literally. Among other works by the renowned filmmaker are The Legend of Suram Fortress and Ashik Kerib, which is his last completed work.

Among Parajanov’s works are “stamps from the prison camp” - pen drawings on matchboxes. They reminded him of his three-year-long prison term (1974 to 1977).

Sergei Parajanov died of lung cancer in Yerevan, on July 21, 1990.