Sergei Paradjanov

Sergei Parajanov (Armenian: Սարգիս Հովսեփի Փարաջանյան, Sargis or Sarkis Hofsepi Paradzhanian; Georgian: სერგეი (სერგო) ფარაჯანოვი, Sergei (Sergo) Parajanov; Russian: Серге́й Ио́сифович Параджа́нов, Sergei Yosifovich Paradzhanov; Ukrainian: Сергій Йосипович Параджанов, Serhiy Yosypovych Paradzhanov; sometimes spelled Paradzhanov or Paradjanov January 9, 1924 — July 20, 1990) was Georgian-born Armenian film director and artist who made significant contributions to Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian cinema.[2] He invented his own cinematic style, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism (the only sanctioned art style in the USSR). This, combined with his controversial lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him, and suppress his films.

Although he started professional film-making in 1954, Parajanov later disowned all the films he made before 1964 as "garbage". After directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (renamed Wild Horses of Fire for most foreign distributions) Parajanov became something of an international celebrity and simultaneously a target of attacks from the system. Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965 to 1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administrations, both local (in Kyiv and Yerevan) and federal (Goskino), almost without discussion, until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. He was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas for pardon from various artists. Even after his release (he was arrested for the third and last time in 1982) he was a persona non grata in Soviet cinema. It was not until the mid-1980s, when the political climate started to relax, that he could resume directing. Still, it required the help of influential Georgian actor Dodo Abashidze and other friends to have his last feature films greenlighted. His health seriously weakened by four years in labor camps and nine months in prison in Tbilisi, Parajanov died of lung cancer in 1990, at a time when, after almost 20 years of suppression, his films were being featured at foreign film festivals.