Sarkis Hovsepi Parajaniants

Style: Neo Pop Art; Primitivism; Surrealism;

Place: Tbilisi

Born: 1924

Death: 1990

Biography:

Sergei Parajanov was an Armenian film director, artist and screenwriter who made significant contribution to world cinema with his films. Parajanov was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1924 and started professional film-making in 1954. He is regarded by film critics, film historians and filmmakers to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in cinema history. Parajanov invented his own cinematic style, which was out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism; the only sanctioned art style in the USSR. This, combined with his lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him, and suppress his films. Despite this, Parajanov was named one of the 20 Film Directors of the Future by the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and his films were ranked among the greatest films of all time by Sight & Sound. 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. He is buried at Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan.