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 f…