THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES - (Director: Sergei Paradjanov)
Mike Cooper returns to present a live musical accompaniment for THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES using sampled elements from Paradjanov's soundtrack of Armenian folk tunes and original material to create a new and stunning soundtrack.

This ravishingly beautiful film was originally refused an export license, and banned by Soviet authorities for religious sympathies and lack of conformity to the strict socialist realism of the former Soviet Union. Paradjanov was arrested in December of 1973 and sentenced to five years hard-labor camps charged with rape and homosexuality.

Paradjanov's extraordinary film traces the life of 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova ('The King of Song'), but with a series of painterly images strung together to form tableaux corresponding to moments of his life rather than any conventional biographic techniques. Pomegranates bleed their juice into the shape of a map of the old region of Armenia, the poet changes sex at least once in the course of his career, angels descend: the result is a stream of religious, poetic and local iconography which has an arcane and astonishing beauty.

This is the most perfect example of Paradjanov's uniquely painterly approach to film-making; with a reliance on visual effects and compositions of objects (as opposed to cinematographic tricks) - Vivid and iconographic, the images interweave landscapes, costumes and music to form a metaphorical history of the Armenian nation and a tangible expression of its spirit, free from any Soviet ideological constraints of the time of its making.

Dispensing with formal cinematic narrative, Parajanov recreates the life of Sayat Nova by displaying his inner world. It's essentially visual poetry; the narrative driven by the scenes of abstract imagery. There is no dialogue, just voiceover (this and any titles are usually lines from Nova's poetry) and Parajanov uses a still camera which never moves. Parajanov makes no attempt at realism, but uses Armenian folklore to revive a national culture which was undermined and suppressed by the authorities.

"The Colour of Pomegranates incorporates so many art forms, it's a beautiful piece of work. It's endlessly mysterious to me and it's quite inspiring. It gives me sustenance, I suppose." - (Atom Egoyan-Armenian born film director)