Sergei Parajanov

Born to Armenian parents in Georgia in 1924, Parajanov studied at Moscow's film institute under Ukrainian masters and began directing in 1954. For over a decade he made films he would later dismiss as "garbage," bound by socialist realism's constraints, growing increasingly disenchanted. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors in 1965 broke the mold and brought international acclaim. The Color of Pomegranates followed in 1969 - a work of such symbolic force it's now considered one of cinema's peaks. Soviet authorities claimed he was bisexual and used it to tighten scrutiny over his personal life, his films, and his ties to Ukrainian nationalism; from 1965 to 1973 they banned nearly every project he proposed, many without discussion. He died in 1990, having spent years fighting to make the visions that earned him the label "conjurer of cinematic worlds."