We continue our series of cinematographic materials about trips to beautiful corners of the world, glorified in the films of great, without exaggeration, directors. This time there are two tourist destinations at once: Georgia and Armenia, and the guide is one of the leading poets of the world of cinema, Sergei Parajanov.
It is not in vain that Parajanov is considered one of the leading poets of his time. The cinematographic parable “The Color of Pomegranates” is a clear confirmation of this. In the center is a symbolic story about the life and inner world of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova (Vilen Galustyan), who became famous in the 18th century mainly for his love lyrics, but managed to show himself in weaving, music and chants. Having obtained recognition from the court, the hero was banished to a monastery. In the film there are no dialogues or monologues familiar to the viewer; The entire narrative is constructed using the language of visualizations, symbols and metaphors, so close to the local population. The title of the author’s film is no less poetic – “Sayat-Nova”, and a trace of the director’s innovative (even by today’s standards) cinematographic images can be seen in Madonna’s video clips for the song “Bedtime Story” and Lady. Gagá for “911”.
As you can easily guess from the title, the hero of the film was the classic of Armenian painting, one of the best European portrait painters of the 19th century, Hakob Hovnatanyan. An artist from the Nagash craft dynasty of Tiflis, who painted temples, became one of the pioneers of the secular easel portrait. Hakob Hovnatanyan painted in oil painting technique, combining a realistic style with the sophistication characteristic of Armenian miniatures. The film itself is one of the first in Parajanov’s chain of experimental static cinema, where cinema enters the territory of painting, and vice versa.
A film adaptation of the ancient Georgian legend about the fortress of Surami, in which the people of Georgia, preparing to defend the country from the attack of foreign enslavers, erected a defensive structure, but every time the wall reached the level of the roof, collapse. “The wall will stand if the most beautiful young man is enclosed in it,” said the fortune teller (Veriko Andzhaparidze). A young man was found, willing to sacrifice himself to save the Homeland, and thanks to this sacrifice the fortress was erected, and no one and nothing could destroy it. Parajanov dedicated the film to the Georgian warriors of all time who gave their lives for the Fatherland, and also tried to convey the flavor of the local lands, which the indigenous people so reverently protect from generation to generation.
In the spring of 1985, a year after “The Legend of Suram Fortress,” the Tbilisi studio approached Parajanov with the proposal to make a documentary about Niko Pirosmani. There is no dialogue in the film, but there is sound. The film itself, shot in a record time of seven days, is divided into several parts. In the film we see many works by Pirosmani and their fragments, but some episodes are playful, with the participation of actors (“The photographer’s workshop in Sololaki”, “Bouquet for Margarita”, “A step towards immortality”). Critics unanimously acknowledged that the genre of Parajanov’s cinema is difficult to define: “These are really original arabesques woven into a complex ornament,” while, “on the one hand, the film is a documentary, not fiction.” On the other hand, it is clearly artistic. “None of the Georgian film directors managed to recreate Pirosmani’s childlike, ‘mannequin’ style, as Parajanov did in his Caucasian films,” wrote statesman Giorgi Gvakharia. Parajanov later spoke of this short film: “This is my favorite little film.”
“Ashik-Kerib” was Sergei Parajanov’s last completed film. The film, shot in Georgia, did not have a wide release and was only granted a distribution certificate after its presentation at international film festivals in Holland, West Germany and Venice. The literary basis was the fairy tale of the same name by Mikhail Lermontov, written on the basis of an Azerbaijani folk tale. At the center of the plot is the poor musician Ashik-Kerib (Yuri Mgoyan). He plays the saz at weddings and other parties and suddenly falls in love with a rich man’s daughter. Ashik-Kerib promises to leave his native place for seven years and get rich or die. During his travels, he still earns a fortune, but special thoughts about his girlfriend no longer come to mind. An encounter with a mysterious rider on a white horse changes everything.
