Welcome to the dream world. One of my best friends turned me onto Sergei Parajanov. We had watched The Legend of Suram Fortress & Ashik Kerib. I was completely speechless and in shock on the first viewing. It hit really far inside my sub/unconscious.

The Color Of Pomegranates is probably Parajanov’s most known film. It’s currently playing at Anthology Film Archive in the East Village
Wednesday July 14, 2010 at 9:15pm & Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 7:15pm

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=07&year=2010#showing-36101

Film Notes from Anthology’s website:

The powerful words of 17th-century poet Arutuin Sayadian, also known as “Sayat Nova” (“King of Siam”) are magnificently captured in this visual pastiche which is both a stylized biography and a tribute to his work. Charted into eight sections of his life from childhood to death, the film is a series of symbolically rich, almost hallucinatory scenes. This baroque masterpiece was banned in the Soviet Union for its religious sentiment and nonconformity to “Socialist realism.” Paradjanov, a tirelessly outspoken campaigner for human rights, was convicted on a number of trumped-up charges and sentenced to five years of hard labor in the gulag. A wave of protest from the international film community led to his release in 1978.

Watch below via google video:

Additional info from Kino.com:

The Legend Of Suram Fortress
Director: Sergei Paradjanov
Country: Russia | USSR
Year: 1985
Paradjanov’s first film after more than a decade of persecution and imprisonment is based on an ancient Georgian legend about unrequitted love. Armenia. 1985. 78 mins. Color. Georgian w/English Subtitles.

(The Legend of Suram Fortress) – Based on an ancient legend, this dazzling film by visionary director Sergei Paradjanov (Shadows Of Our Forgotten Ancestors) is a surreal ode to Georgian warriors throughout the ages who died for their country. Repeated efforts by the Georgian people to construct a defensive stronghold continually fail. The building collapses until a fortune teller remembers an old prophecy that the son of her erstwhile lover must be bricked up alive in order for the fortress to stand. The young man is faced with the prospect of sacrificing himself to save his country.
Ashik Kerib
Director: Sergei Paradjanov
Country: Russia | USSR
Year: 1988
This shimmering spectacle resembles a medieval manuscript brought to life in its tale of a wandering minstrel in search of his lost love. Armenia. 1988. 78 mins. Color. Russian w/ English subtitles.

(Ashik Kerib) – From Sergei Paradjanov (The Legend of Suram Fortress, Shadows Of Our Forgotten Ancestors) one of the most acclaimed experimental directors of the Soviet cinema, comes Ashik Kerib, a 19th Century romantic tale evocatively brought to life.

In recounting Lermontov’s fable of a wandering minstrel trying to earn enough money to marry the girl he loves, Paradjanov dispenses with conventional storytelling devices in order to present a boldly unique cinematic experience. Glorious tableaux, exquisitely composed, choreographed and photographed, are combined with intertitles, images of early Russian artwork and a haunting blend of traditional and contemporary musical forms, to create an enthralling and utterly unforgettable film.

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