Kora Tsereteli

A film version of a well-known Georgian folk-tale. A young boy has to be immured into the walls of a fortress in order to stop it from crumbling to pieces.

Three short films by Sergei Parajanov, Hakob Hovnatanyan (1967), Kyiv Frescoes (1966) and Arabesques on the Theme of Pirosmani (1986). Scanned and restored from the original camera negatives in 4K by Fixafilm. Produced in association with National Cinema Centre of Armenia (NCCA), Dovzhenko Centre and Georgian Film. Scans for Hakob Hovnatanyan and Arabesques on the Theme of Pirosmani financed by Kino Klassika.

Short film from Sergei Parajanov, a personal view of the director on the spectacular heritage of Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918), a Georgian primitivist painter.

The film tells of the life and work of Sergey Paradzhanov. On December 15, 1973, the Master was to leave for Yerevan to start work on a film based on Andersen’s fairy tales. It is not known why he had changed his decision, and left on that very day for Kiev where, two days later, on December 17, he was arrested. The film recounts the years the director spent in prison. The author tries to penetrate the mysteries of the Master’s spiritual world, naming the sources, from which he drew the strength to endure the adversities of not only camp life, but of the life in general that had endowed him with huge talent and made him pay for it in full measure.

Documentary made and dedicated to Sergei Parajanov shortly after his death, featuring archive photographs, his collages, and clips from several of his films.

The film explores the two central themes of Sergey Paradzhanov’s works that the great master had been particularly interested in: “Eros and Thanatos”… (Love and Death). His reflections on these eternal and never-to-be-solved mysteries of human nature are conveyed in his films and drawings through Paradzhanov’s unique language that has no analogies.