Sergei Parajanov - Tsvetok na kamne AKA A Little Flower on a Stone (1962)

Description: Full of arresting chiaroscuro images, Paradjanov's only monochrome film plays like a noir thriller. Set in a mining town in the Donets Basin, it centres on a clash (allegorical?) between the political establishment and a religious cult which infiltrates the community. With critic Ron Holloway's Paradjanov: A Requiem (Germany 1994, 59min): a lengthy 1988 interview with Paradjanov frames clips from all the films and samples of his drawings and designs.

(http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/node/14484)

Sergei Parajanov - I am Sergei Parajanov! (1990)

Synopsis:
I am Sergei Parajanov! shot a few months after Parajanov's death. Features archive photographs, his collages, the clips from Sayat-Nova (1968), Ashik Kerib (1988), the making of The Legend of the Surami Fortress (1984) and a few views of the house he lived.

Ron Holloway - Paradjanov: A Requiem (1994)

The film shows the unique world of artist Sergei Parajanov, whose brilliant images in films and collages aroused the suspicion of Soviet authorities. Unexpectedly, this last all-embracing interview, given at the 1988 München Film Festival, has become a film legacy.

Sergei Parajanov was born an Armenian in Georgia. He studied at the Moscow Film School and worked as a director in the Ukraine. His stylistic vitality and “plasticism” - a term he used to describe his films - enabled him to creative universal images.

Sergei Parajanov - Kiev Frescos (1966)

LINK

A lyrical portrait of life in a contemporary Armenian village following the devastation of an earthquake and the fall of communism.

Quote:

Kievski Freski Dir Sergei Paradjanov (Kiev Frescos) 1966. 35mm. 13 mins
Paradjanov assembled this "film collage" from the rushes and tests that remained unscathed after the Soviet authorities halted the production of Kiev Frescos and ordered the negative to be destroyed.

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When the Soviet authorities were imposing on a multi-national country the artificial conception of a "homogeneous Soviet people", Paradjanov was defending those nations' very diversity and uniqueness. Through films and documentaries (both by Paradjanov and others), this programme attempts to trace Paradjanov's creative journeys through Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia.

Soon after the Soviet authorities stopped the shooting of Kiev Frescos (Kievski Freski) in 1966, Sergei Paradjanov left Dovchenko film studios in Kiev for Armenfilm in Yerevan. There he started work on a feature length homage to Sayat Nova, the pseudonym of the Haroutine Sayadian (Tblissi, 1712 - 1795), an Armenian poet and bard, who wrote in Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani.

Sergei Parajanov - Pervyy paren aka The First Lad (1959)

A gem from Paradjanov's early oeuvre is a musical agitation film or a romantic comedy, made by the young director under the guidance of Alexander Dovzhenko and set in the immense fields of the collectivised Ukraine. The social realism is replaced by colourful, convivial and dancing shots of the “Pabieda” (Victory) kolkhoz, where peasant women sing in the fields, and boys march with banners glorifying revolution. Against this backdrop, intense romantic feelings have reached a climactic stage; tailor Sidor Sidorovich, farmer Jushka and soldier Danila Petrovich all dote on the fair-haired Odarka. It is Jushka and Danila who engage in overt hostility; the initial “gentlemen’s” contest turns into an outright confrontation, resulting in miserable Jushka being increasingly more desperate and scorned by the villagers.

Sergei Parajanov - Ashugi Qaribi aka The Hoary Legends of the Caucasus (1988)

Based on a story by Russian author Mikhail Lermontov, Ashik Kerib has the texture of an ancient, oft-told tale. Yuri Mgoyan stars as a wandering troubadour, working the provinces. He spends 1000 days and nights on the road, entertaining whenever and wherever he can. Mgoyan's itinerant lifestyle seemingly has little purpose, but it does. At the end of those 1000 days and nights, he hopes to have accumulated enough money to afford a wedding...if his bride is willing to wait.

Dziga Vertov - Tri pesni o Lenine AKA Three songs about Lenin (1934)

Quote:

The legendary Dziga Vertov's most personal and deeply felt film, as well as the touchstone of his brilliant career. Three Songs of Lenin reveals the Russian leader as seen through the eyes of the Russian people represented in three songs. The first, "In a Black Prison Was My Face," concerns the life of a young Muslim woman. "We Loved Him" deals with the life and death of Lenin himself. The third song, "In the Great City of Stone" shows the accomplishments of his glorious rule.

Ivan Pyryev - Skazanie o zemle sibirskoy AKA The Tale of Siberian Land (1947)

From Mosfilm:
Andrey Balashov, a pianist, had to quit music after being wounded during the Great Patriotic War. Having failed to say goodbye to his friends and Natasha whom he loved he left for Siberia. He worked at the construction of an industrial complex and sang in a teahouse. An accidental meeting with his friends and Natasha changed his life. Andrey left for the Arctic region where being inspired by heroic labor of the builders he wrote a symphonic oratorio «Tale of Siberian Land» that won everybody’s recognition and made him popular in Moscow where Natasha was looking forward to see her true-love.