Russian Film Great Sergei Parajanov and His Influence on Russian and World Culture

Soviet film director Sergei Parajanov is known as the “greatest illusionist in cinematic history.” His masterpiece, The Color of Pomegranates (1968), has had a profound influence to this day, serving as the inspiration for the Queen of Pop Madonna’s 1994 music video for “Bedtime Story” and Lady Gaga’s 2020 music video for “911.”

In his play, LEGEND, Kirill Serebrennikov pays homage to his great predecessor. Although one of the most brilliant figures in Soviet and global film history, Parajanov is not as widely known in Europe or other parts of the world as Andrei Tarkovsky. This is mainly because Parajanov lived during the Cold War behind the Iron Curtain and was imprisoned three times. In addition, he was far ahead of his time in terms of how he lived his life and his films, which are unconventional and often shocking. This often-overlooked brilliant individual lived a tragic and tumultuous life that perfectly illustrates the saying, “Time edits films, films do not edit time.”

Parajanov was born into an Armenian family in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, on January 9, 1924. He entered the film industry in the 1950s. After graduating from the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (now the S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian State University of Cinematography) in Moscow, he began his career as a director. His life took a dramatic turn in 1964 with the filming of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors at the Dovzhenko Film Studios, which sparked a revolution in Soviet cinema. Abandoning traditional narrative methods, he created visual poetry on the big screen that was filled with folklore symbols, rituals, mystery, and color. 

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors not only brought Parajanov international acclaim, but also cemented his place as one of the founders of the new poetic cinema movement (or Soviet poetic realism). A key feature of this film, which was essential from an artistic point of view, is that it is entirely in Ukrainian, without a dubbed Russian version. The Soviet authorities labeled Parajanov a Ukrainian nationalist due to this film, his close association with dissidents, and his unabashed criticism of Soviet cultural policies. 

In 1966, Parajanov traveled to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to begin filming The Color of Pomegranates, which was originally titled Sayat-Nova. This film focuses on the life story of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, a remarkable figure in the history of South Caucasus. He was a poet and troubadour who composed and sang lyric poetry in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Farsi. 

The Color of Pomegranates is imbued with ethnic colors, in-depth psychology, imagery, and storytelling. Parajanov, as usual, explored philosophical themes of life, death, love, and the poet’s journey through a lens, forging one of his most mysterious and poetic works. There are no conventional dialogues, plot twists, or emotional conflicts. Instead, this film consists entirely of a series of symbolic images: textiles, icons, pomegranates, books, birds, crosses, and flames. 

This director attempted to use these to express a poet’s internalized symbols: inspiration, love, pain, and the journey toward God. Each frame of The Color of Pomegranates is like a sacred icon or an ancient Persian miniature. Parajanov created a unique cinematic language in which every action, color, and object carry symbolic meaning. For example, pomegranates symbolize the fruit of life, the blood, the heart, and creativity. Parajanov once said that “The pomegranate is like the heart, the harder you squeeze it, the more juice and pain flow from it.”

Looking at Russia and the post-Soviet states, Parajanov has had a profound, far-reaching, and ineffable influence on later directors, artists, and poets. His artistic language has inspired many greats, such as Tarkovsky (with whom he had a close personal relationship), Alexander Sokurov, and Serebrennikov. Outside of Russia, Parajanov’s works have been widely praised by internationally renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Emir Kusturica. 

Parajanov’s “poetic and picturesque” works have changed people’s understanding and imagination of cinematic possibilities, proving that films are not only a medium for storytelling, but also a form of visual philosophy, like paintings or lyric poetry. His works have opened paths to understanding art and culture and exist for spiritual and aesthetic purposes, rather than merely being political phenomena or blindly serving politics. 

Today, Parajanov’s works are considered cinematic classics, having been incorporated into university curricula and screened at film festivals worldwide, thus continuing to inspire artists and creators. They remind us that true art comes from inner freedom and faithfulness to beauty. Parajanov not only left us his films, but also his unique worldview, harmoniously merging the poetic beauty, arts, and cultures of different ethnicities. For this reason, his influences are still seen in the developmental contexts of art in Russia and the world, as well as linger in various forms and even extend to the realm of modern music. 

LEGEND, which is making its Taiwan premiere, is not a stage adaptation of Parajanov’s biography. Rather, Serebrennikov reinterprets this Soviet director’s creative vision and the many interesting stories and legends surrounding his life. For Serebrennikov, Parajanov was not merely a directorial genius. He had a distinctive personality and was highly eccentric - a larger-than-life dramatic figure, a living “circus.”