Sergei Parajanov

Sergei Parajanov was an Armenian film director, screenwriter and artist who made significant contribution to world cinema with his films Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Color of Pomegranates. He invented his own cinematic style, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism. This, combined with his controversial 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 prestigious Rotterdam International Film Festival, and his films were ranked among the greatest films of all time by the British Film Institute's magazine Sight & Sound.