Sergei Parajanov (Armenian: Սարգիս Հովսեփի Փարաջանյան, Sargis or Sarkis Hofsepi Paradzhanian; Georgian: სერგეი (სერგო) ფარაჯანოვი, Sergei (Sergo) Parajanov; Russian: Серге́й Ио́сифович Параджа́нов, Sergei Yosifovich Paradzhanov; Ukrainian: Сергій Йосипович Параджанов, Serhii Yosypovych Paradzhanov; sometimes spelled Paradzhanov or Paradjanov January 9, 1924 — July 20, 1990) was Georgian-born Armenian film director and artist, who significantly contributed to Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian cinema.
He invented his own cinematic style, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism (the only sanctioned art style in the USSR). This, combined with his controversial lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet cinema authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him and suppress his films.
Although he started professional film-making in 1954, Parajanov later disowned all of his pre-1964 works as "garbage". After directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (renamed Wild Horses of Fire for most foreign distributions) Parajanov had become something of an international celebrity and simultaneously a target of attacks from the system. Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965–1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administration, both local (in Kiev and Yerevan) and federal (infamous Goskino), almost without discussion until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. Parajanov was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas for pardon from various esteemed artists.
Even after his release (he would be arrested for the third and last time in 1982) he was a persona non grata in Soviet cinema. It was not until the mid-1980s, when the political climate started to relax, that he could resume directing. Still, it required the help of influential Georgian actor Dodo Abashidze and other friends to have his last feature films green-lighted. His health seriously weakened by four years in labor camps and nine months in a Tbilisi prison, Parajanov died of lung cancer in 1990, at the time when, after almost 20 years of suppression, his films were finally again allowed to be featured in foreign film festivals.
Read more about Sergei Parajanov: Early Life and Films, Break From Soviet Realism, Imprisonment and Later Work, Influences and Legacy, Filmography