Зеркало (Mirror), Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975.

Mirror screens at Artspace on Wednesday, March 28th.

From Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) (top) and Սայաթ-Նովաg (The Colour of Pomegranates) (bottom).

Our mini-retrospective of the films of Sergei Parajanov begins Wednesday with The Colour of Pomegranates, at Artspace, and continues Friday with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, at Traill College, SH105.

Masks, from Sergei Parajanov’s Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), 1964

pnoom:

Dancing scene from Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), Sergei Parajanov, 1964

harpy:

Sergei Parajanov photographed behind bars and wires.

Some context:

Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965–1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administration almost without discussion until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on fabricated charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. Parajanov was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas for pardon from various esteemed artists.

While incarcerated Parajanov produced a large number of miniature doll-like sculptures (some of which were lost) and some 800 drawings and collages, many of which were later displayed in Yerevan, where the Parajanov Museum is now permanently located. His efforts in the camp were repeatedly compromised by prison guards, who deprived him of materials and called him mad, their cruelty only subsiding after a statement from Moscow admitted “the Director is very talented.”

Upon his return from prison to Tbilisi, the close watch of Soviet censors prevented Parajanov from continuing his cinematic pursuits and steered him towards artistic outlets which he had nurtured during his time in prison. He crafted extraordinarily intricate collages, created a large collection of abstract drawings and pursued numerous other avenues of non-cinematic art, sewing more dolls and some whimsical suits.

Sergei Parajanov’s 1968 film The Colour of Pomegranates screens on Wednesday, March 21st at Artspace. We will follow up the screening on Friday with a special presentation of Parajanov’s first feature, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, on Friday, March 23rd.

From Սայաթ-Նովաg (The Colour of Pomegranates), Sergei Parajanov, 1968

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Massoumeh and Zahra Naderi, stealing apples in Samira Makhmalbaf’s The Apple.

Samira Makhmalbaf, 7 years old, eating an apple in Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist.

The Apple, directed by Samira Makhmalbaf and made ten years after The Cyclist, is set to screen next Wednesday at Artspace.

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“Already forgotten, still prohibited, always invisible – such is our cinema. One never saw it, one had to love it blindly, by heart.” (JLG)

(via oneorseveralwolves)

More images from Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist.