The Georgian Ministry of Culture and Sports honours Sergo Farajanov’s memory and outstanding contribution to the development of Georgia and world culture. One hundred years have passed since the birth of the world-renowned Georgian artist, genius filmmaker, screenwriter and painter Sergo Farajanov.
The ministry says that the anniversary year should be celebrated in Georgia with various events, including an exhibition of artists’ works.
Sergo Farajanov was educated in various fields in the 1940s, including at the Tbilisi Conservatory, and in 1952, he graduated from the directorate department of the Faculty of Education and Science (I. Savchenko’s workshop). He defended his diploma with the film “Moldavian Fairy Tale” (m/m, 1952).
In 1964, a full-length feature film, “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, was shot – a groundbreaking work in terms of cinematic performance, in which the story of the classicist of Ukrainian literature – Mikheil Kotsiubinsky, made a mystery of human life.
The film has been met with admiration around the world (16 prizes at international film festivals, including the Prize for Best Direction and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Mar del Plat International Film Festival in 1965; the Trophy for the Festival of Festivals in Rome, 1965; the Special Prize for Innovation and Talent Search from the Union Film Festival in 1965 and others.
Farajanov was actively campaigning against censorship and, along with other pioneers of culture, protesting the facts of human rights violations. In 1968, he signed a protest against illegal political trials.
He temporarily left Kyiv during the “hunt for tails” against “bourgeois nationalism”. In 1967-70 years, he was working in Yerevan studio, where he shot a documentary film about the painter Akof Ovnatanyan (1967) and the first film of the “Caucasian Trilogy” “Sayatnova” (1968), which was edited differently at the request of the censors and released on the screen with the name “Pomegranate Color”. Farajanov perfectly poured meat into his aesthetic principles and depicted the biography of the poetic soul against the colourful historical background of the Caucasus.
After returning to Ukraine in 1972, he started working on the film “Kyiv Frescoes”, but due to formalism, the shooting was stopped (only photos and cinematography remain). In 1973, he was sentenced based on a false hearing and four years (1973-77). ) Followed in the labor-correction colony. While in prison, he wrote the script “Swan Lake.” Zone”, which was later filmed by filmmaker Yuri Ilenko.
Sergo Farajanov was released from prison only by the efforts of the world’s creative intelligence, but he was banned from living in Kyiv and returned to his hometown, Tbilisi.
In October 1981, while in Moscow, Farajanov boldly defended Yuri Lyubimov’s performance, which annoyed the central government. A new case against Farajanov was resolved, and he was arrested in February 1982; however, in October of the same year, he was released from the courtroom with the intervention of Georgian creative intelligence.
In 1983, as soon as he was allowed to work, Farajanov returned to the Caucasus theme and shot many international award-winning films: “The Story of Surami Prison” (1984, Daniel Chonkadze’s story on the motives of “Surami Prison” and the folk poem, “Zurabi’s Mother’s Cry”,) and “Ashugi Kerib” (1988, based on Mikheil Lermontov’s poem).
The director has created a unique universe of colour, plastic, music, and words in these films, full of naivety and irony, wisdom, kindness, and boundless imagination. Farajanov greatly influenced the cinema of the second half of the 20th century with his work, forming a new Ukrainian cinema and the “Kyiv School“.
Sergo Farajanov died in July 1990 at the age of 66. He left up to twenty unfulfilled scenarios. Before his death, he managed to shoot only one scene of the autobiographical movie – “Confession”.
Sergo Farajanov has created several fine art pieces, including paintings, collages, installations, assemblages, unique dolls, hats, bonnets and costumes.
