by Sergei Parajanov

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A breathtaking fusion of poetry, ethnography, and cinema, Sergei Parajanov’s masterwork overflows with unforgettable images and sounds. In a series of tableaux that blend the tactile with the abstract, The Color of Pomegranates revives the splendors of Armenian culture through the story of the eighteenth-century poet Sayat-Nova, charting his intellectual, artistic, and spiritual growth through iconographic compositions rather than traditional narrative. The film’s tapestry of folklore and metaphor departed from the realism that dominated the Soviet cinema of its era, leading authorities to block its distribution, with rare underground screenings presenting it in a restructured form. This edition features the cut closest to Parajanov’s original vision, in a restoration that brings new life to one of cinema’s most enigmatic meditations on art and beauty.

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Country: Soviet Union

Language: Armenian with English subtitles

Year: 1968

Running Time: 79 minutes

Director Sergei Parajanov

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The Color of Pomegranates was restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna.

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Parajanov once said “Everyone knows that I have three motherlands. I was born in Georgia, worked in Ukraine, and I’m going to die in Armenia”