Sergei Parajanov's Differential Cinema

The films of Sergei Parajanov (1924–1990) remain some of the most stylistically unique in the history of the medium and easily place him within the pantheon of the world's great filmmakers. This article offers a new perspective on Parajanov's art through a detailed examination of the two works at the center of his oeuvre, The Colour of Pomegranates (1969) and The Legend of Suram Fortress (1985). In addition to their undeniable aesthetic value, these films may be appreciated as meaningful discourse on our conceptions of time, perception, and identity. Like Parajanov's other films, they dismantle the perceptual and narrative structure of classical cinema in order to stimulate awareness of an expressly raw layer of reality beneath what we customarily take to be static, indivisible essences or identities. With specific attention to the correlation of difference, repetition, and perception, this article also focuses on the effects this presentation of perpetual flux and variation has on consciousness and subjectivity within the films.