The Colour of Pomegranates

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

Parajanov's life history is itself an extraordinary story: he was arrested by Soviet authorities in 1973 on charges that included homosexuality and Ukrainian nationalism, sentenced to five years' hard labour in Siberia, and only released 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 and was unable to make features for most of his career; he died in 1990, having directed only four completed films.

The film is now in Sight & Sound's top hundred greatest films (2022 poll). It is widely cited as a primary visual influence on Madonna's Bedtime Story music video (1995, directed by Mark Romanek), Tarsem Singh's The Cell, and the work of Lars von Trier. The cast is led by Sofiko Chiaureli — who plays six different roles, both male and female — alongside Melkon Aleksanyan and Vilen Galstyan; the cinematography is by Suren Shakhbazyan and the score draws on traditional Armenian and Persian music arranged by Tigran Mansuryan.