Red Pomegranate (1969)

One of cinema's greatest masterpieces, Sergei Parajanov's "The Color of Pomegranates," a biography of Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova (King of Song) reveals the poet's life more through his poetry than a conventional narration of important events in Sayat Nova's life. The poet is presented as he grows up, falls in love, enters a monastery, and dies, but these incidents are depicted in the context of images from Sergei Parajanov's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems--works that are seen and rarely heard. Sofiko Chiaureli plays five roles, both male and female, and Sergei Parajanov writes, directs, edits, choreographs, and works on costumes, design, decor, and virtually every aspect of this one-of-a-kind work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.