Сергій Параджанов

Activity: Culture
Date of birth: January 9, 1924
Date of death: July 20, 1990
Context: Postwar USSR

A Ukrainian and Armenian film director, screenwriter, and composer, a founder of the Ukrainian poetic cinema movement. A political prisoner and the creator of the renowned film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

Sergei Parajanov was born into a family of antique dealers, where the craft had been passed down through generations. However, he chose a different path: he first studied for a year at the Institute of Railway Transport, worked at a toy factory in Tbilisi, and from 1942 to 1945 studied in the vocal department of the Tbilisi Conservatory, touring with a concert troupe that performed for wounded soldiers in hospitals.
In 1946, Parajanov moved to Moscow, where he transferred to the local conservatory and simultaneously began studying at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography. After graduating in 1951, he was assigned to the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Kyiv Film Studio, where he began working as a film director.
In Kyiv, Parajanov directed, among other works, the documentary Nataliia Uzhvii (1957) about the stage and film actress, the war drama Ukrainian Rhapsody (1961), and the film-novella Flower on the Stone (1962), composed of three separate stories. However, true recognition and worldwide fame came to him with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964), based on the novella by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. “I had long dreamed of creating a film that would fully express the poetic, talented soul of the Ukrainian people,” the director said. The film marked the debut of Ivan Mykolaichuk in the leading role; cinematography was by Yurii Illienko, and the music was composed by Myroslav Skoryk.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors became not only a cinematic event of global significance (the film received 39 international awards, 28 festival prizes, including 24 Grand Prix), but also a powerful political statement. On September 4, 1965, during the premiere at the Ukraina cinema in Kyiv, Ivan Dziuba, Vasyl Stus, and Viacheslav Chornovil called for protest against the wave of arrests of intellectuals that had begun that summer. “Mass political arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals and youth are now taking place in Kyiv, Lviv, and other cities. 1937 is repeating itself. Young people must protest the authorities and condemn this injustice,” Dziuba declared from the stage. Parajanov further fueled tensions by refusing to create a Russian-language soundtrack for the film—an unprecedented act of defiance in Soviet cinema at the time.
In 1967, Parajanov was invited to the Yerevan Film Studio, where he directed The Color of Pomegranates (1968)—a deeply symbolic and allegorical film about the poet Sayat-Nova. Officials from the State Committee for Cinematography declared the film incomprehensible and unnecessary for audiences, and it was shelved for several years. In 1973, it was released, but without Parajanov’s involvement: since he refused to edit it, director Sergei Yutkevich completed the editing. The original version was restored only in 2014.
In 1971, Parajanov returned to Kyiv. On March 17, 1973, he was arrested on charges of homosexual relations (a criminal offense in the USSR), Ukrainian nationalism, and illegal trading of icons. He was convicted specifically for homosexuality and sentenced to five years in a high-security labor camp. The charge was intended to turn his life in prison into a nightmare, but he managed to gain respect among inmates. He organized an art workshop in prison and maintained correspondence with friends and international colleagues.
Thanks to an international protest campaign involving Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini, François Truffaut, and Michelangelo Antonioni, Parajanov was released on December 30, 1977. He was banned from living in Ukraine, so he settled in Tbilisi, where he made several more films, including The Legend of Suram Fortress (1984) and Ashik Kerib (1988, co-directed with David Abashidze).
Parajanov’s final film remained unfinished—an autobiographical project titled Confession (1990), on which he worked while dying of lung cancer. Sensing his approaching death, Parajanov—who had said he wished to die in Armenia—arrived in Yerevan on July 17, 1990. Three days later, he passed away. On July 25, he was buried in the Pantheon of Armenian cultural figures.
In his last interview, given in Ukrainian, Parajanov said: “Long live Ukraine! Long live Ukrainian nationalism as I understand it: we must not allow a time to come when there will be no Ukrainian word, no Ukrainian song, no Ukrainian sun, and no Ukrainian sunflower.”
In December 2023, the National Rehabilitation Commission, at the initiative of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, posthumously rehabilitated Sergei Parajanov.

Author: Olha Herasymenko

Brief conclusions

Cultural figure and reformer — one of the brightest representatives of Ukrainian poetic cinema; developed a distinctive collage-like artistic technique.
Public activity — actively opposed Soviet censorship and repression of Ukrainian intellectuals; supported the dissident movement.
Creative work — created outstanding films such as Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, The Color of Pomegranates (Armenia), and Arabesques on the Theme of Pirosmani, combining folklore, religion, and Byzantine aesthetics.
Legacy — left a profound impact on Ukrainian and world culture, pioneering new visual language by blending folk aesthetics with painting and deep psychological imagery, where the image became more important than the plot.

Portal Editorial Team