The Colour of Pomegranates

Sergei Parajanov shot The Colour of Pomegranates in 1968 at the Armenfilm studio in Yerevan, and Soviet authorities recut it substantially before its 1969 release. Two versions of the director's cut existed, Parajanov's first edit and a slightly altered one made under pressure from cultural commissars, and both circulated in Armenia for years. The definitive restoration, by the Cineteca di Bologna with Martin Scorsese's Hollywood-based Film Foundation, premiered at Cannes Classics in 2014.

Parajanov was arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1973 on charges that included homosexuality and Ukrainian nationalism, and sentenced to five years' hard labour in Siberia. He was released only in 1977, after international pressure that included a campaign by Yves Saint Laurent, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky and others. He served a second prison term in 1982, could not make features for most of his career, and died in 1990 with only four completed films to his name.

The film now sits in Sight & Sound's top hundred greatest films (2022 poll). Its influence shows in Madonna's Bedtime Story music video (1995, directed by Mark Romanek), in Tarsem Singh's The Cell and in the work of Lars von Trier. Sofiko Chiaureli leads the cast in six different roles, male and female, alongside Melkon Aleksanyan and Vilen Galstyan. Suren Shakhbazyan shot it, and the score, arranged by Tigran Mansuryan, draws on traditional Armenian and Persian music.