The Color of Pomegranates is a biography of the Armenian poet (ashug) Sayat Nova (King of Song) that attempts to reveal the poet’s life visually and poetically rather than literally. The film is presented in a form of static tableaux and depicts the poet’s coming of age, discovery of the female form, falling in love, entering a monastery and dying, all framed through both Sergei Parajanov’s imagination and Sayat Nova’s poems. Actress Sofiko Chiaureli notably plays six roles in the film, both male and female.
The visual language of this film is one of a kind.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
The film does not attempt to tell the life story of a poet. Rather, the filmmaker had tried to recreate the poet’s inner world, through the trepidations of his soul, his passions and torments, widely utilizing the symbolism and allegories specific to the tradition of medieval Armenian poet troubadours (Ashough).
From the opening scene
