Georgisches Film Festival: Die Farbe des Granatapfels

The color of the pomegranate - Sayat Nova A poetic film poem of lush beauty, an absolute masterpiece! Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sergei Parajanov, the most exciting and original filmmaker of the 20th century. Director: Sergei Parajanov, Armenia 1969, 79 min.

The Armenian lyricist Arathin Sayadin worked at the court of King Herod II in the 18th century. After his expulsion, he roamed the country as a traveling singer until he was murdered and martyred. The unusual film biography of Sayat Nova consists of eight chapters that depict the stages of his life with the help of strongly surrealistic tableaux. Little is said in the film, most of the words are found in the lyrical intertitles: Visual expression takes precedence.
Sergei Parajanov depicts stages of the poet's life in lovingly ironic tableaux: growing up surrounded by books, his first love, his time at court. In doing so, he strives to penetrate the poet's poetic universe, to merge it with his own, as it were. Ulrich Gregor wrote at the time: "The richness of the optical and acoustic score, the symbolic figures that run through the entire film, the montage transitions that serve the associative movement of the poetic thought, open up new possibilities of poetic cinematic expressiveness." Sergei Parajanov's images and Sayat Nova's poetry penetrate deep into the Christian oriental culture of Armenia and are carefully and strictly composed. A very special feast for the eyes.