DISSIDENT DIRECTOR’S LIFE TO TURN INTO INTERNATIONAL MOVIE

Russia Today

Jan 19 2012

The rollercoaster life of Armenian film director Sergey Parajanov is
worthy of a gripping movie plot. Adored by Fellini and Truffaut for
his edgy and flamboyant films, he spent years locked in a GULAG for
allegedly being gay.

In fact he’d been imprisoned for speaking out against the stiffness
of the Soviet regime in his movies.

He was a man of mystery, of scandal and tragedy. But no matter
how surrealistic his films – his real life was even more so. A new
multi-national co-production of his life is in the works directed by
a man who knew him.

The film will take viewers to the places most loved by Parajanov –
where he worked and spent most of his life: Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia
and France. It’s to be directed by fellow Armenian Serge Avedikian,
who won the best short film prize at Cannes in 2010. He couldn’t say
no when offered the project having met and interviewed Parajanov in
1984. Avedikian says it’s as if Parajanov “prompted” him to agree to
tell the tale of a free man who created his own world in defiance of
the real one.

“Charming but unbearable,” according to his second wife, Sergey
Parajanov defied the authorities for the sake of truth and good
humour. When invited to play Karl Marx in a Soviet movie he pretended
to nit-pick the thick beard. That was the end of his acting career.

Sergei Parajanov was born in 1924 in Georgia, but most of his works
were created in Ukraine. He moved there after the tragic death of his
first wife. She had been thrown under a train by her own brothers –
for marrying the penniless Parajanov who couldn’t pay the traditional
ransom for her.

Parajanov was a true eccentric his dinner plate had to be arranged in
a specific way, and there were rules for putting a cup on a table. His
fantasy knew no borders – and so did his movies. He came to prominence
in 1964 with the “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” – a story of a
Ukrainian Romeo and Juliette in which fantasy and traditions take
over from realism. Described as ‘the greatest movie ever created’
it caused Parajanov to fall from grace with the authorities. They
forced him to re-edit his next surrealistic creation – “The colour
of pomegranates” – a story of a medieval poet, told through a magic
mix of colour, plasticity, music, it talks about love and criticised
authorities in a disguised way.

His politically incorrect jokes didn’t go down well with the Soviet
authorities, and he was accused of homosexual rape and spent five
years in a prison Gulag. It was only the intervention of world famous
film makers like Fellini, Truffaut, and Antonioni got him released.

After a fifteen year break he got back to work in 1983 creating his
masterpiece: “Legend of Suram Fortress”.

Sergey Parajanov died of cancer in 1990 in Armenia leaving his final
movie “The Confession” unfinished. “My whole life I was motivated by
jealousy”, Parajanov once said, “I used to be jealous of beautiful
people – and became charming, I was jealous of smart people and became
unpredictable.” Some say, he might have been jealous of the talented
people – and became a genius.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress