The Color of Pomegranates

A breathtaking fusion of poetry, ethnography, and cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s masterwork overflows with unforgettable images and sounds. The film’s tapestry of folklore and metaphor based on Armenian culture, told through the story of the eighteenth-century troubadour Sayat-Nova, departed from the realism that dominated the Soviet cinema of its era, leading authorities to block its distribution.

Parajanov was a closeted bisexual, which exposed him to increased legal scrutiny from Soviet authorities over his personal life, his films, and political involvement surrounding Ukrainian nationalism. In December 1973, he was arrested in Kyiv, and was accused of homosexuality, sodomy, and propagation of pornography. He was sentenced to five years in a hard labor camp despite international outcry from artists such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert De Niro, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, and John Updike. Today, his films have inspired a new generation of filmmakers and musicians, including Madonna, R.E.M., and Lady Gaga.