London film festival to feature Parajanov's 'Color of Pomegranates'

A digitally restored version of Russian-Armenian film director Sergei Parajanov’s 1969 "cinematic Holy Grail" is set to dazzle the London film festival 2014 this week, according to The Guardian.

When Martin Scorsese introduced his Film Foundation’s newly restored version of "The Colour of Pomegranates" at the Toronto film festival in September he told the expectant audience they were going to witness images and visions “pretty much unlike anything in cinema history”.

The 1969 film, voted 84th best of all-time in the most recent Sight & Sound magazine greatest movies poll, only gained a belated official release in western cinemas in 1982, but even the cinephiles and critics who have lauded the film with such extravagant praise since should now prepare to see Sergei Parajanov’s masterpiece afresh.

The digital restoration, completed in conjunction with Cineteca di Bologna, comes as close as possible to the director’s original vision and it is this version, described by critic and Toronto festival programmer James Quandt as “a cinematic Holy Grail”, which will screen at the London film festival in October.

Read more on The Guardian website.