Sergei Iosifovich Parajanov

Place: Tbilisi

Born: 1924

Death: 1990

Biography:

Sergei Iosifovich Parajanov was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. He is regarded by film critics, film historians, and filmmakers to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Born to ethnically Armenian parents in Georgia, he studied at Moscow's VGIK under the tutelage of Ukrainian filmmakers Igor Savchenko and Oleksandr Dovzhenko. Parajanov became increasingly disenchanted with his films as well as the state-sanctioned art style of socialist realism, prominent throughout the Soviet Union. After moving to Ukraine and directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, his first major work which diverged from socialist realism and gave him international acclaim, he would later disown and proclaim his films made before 1965 as 'garbage.' Parajanov subsequently directed The Color of Pomegranates, which was met with widespread acclaim among filmmakers, and is often considered one of the greatest films ever made. He won prizes at various film festivals and retrospectives were held in his honor.