——UPGRADED——
This Soviet film is a biography of the Georgian primitive artist Nikoloz Pirosmanishvili (1862–1918), better known as Pirosmani, who died of starvation and sold his paintings to bars and restaurants for food and drink. The film experiments with color control techniques based on the painter’s style.
Nahapet (meaning patriarch in Armenian) has lost his family, his house and all his properties during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Self-absorbed and reticent, he’s like a withered tree. The village on the slope of Mount Aragats, where he finds shelter, consists only of half-destroyed houses and sun-scorched earth. Could Nahapet find the inner strength to build a new house, start a new family and revive the things cast away by his destiny? This eternal story of resurrection is symbolic for the Armenian nation’s history.
Dragon is a bloody dictator, who kills every opponent. People live hopelessly, until Lancelot comes to save the beautiful Elsa. Lancelot can only win, if all people become free from fear, that is feeding the Dragon’s power. Dragon’s multiple personalities, ranging from a “dragon” to a “samurai” to a “Nazi”, scare the hell out of all people, except Lancelot. Finally Dragon drops all his masks, to become the most dangerous of his incarnations – “himself”. And the battle begins.
Shot on 35mm, “Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme” is an original view of the naive work of the Georgian painter Niko Pirosmanichvili, commonly called Pirosmani. By a series of short scenes, played and composed on his paintings, the Armenian director Sergei Paradjanov (originally: Sargis Hovsepi Paradjanian) glorifies the life and work of the most famous Georgian artist.
Two boys on a hot summer afternoon on the steppe wander into a Bollywood movie. They want to go back for the second show but don’t have enough money for a ticket, so they think up a scheme to earn the cash.
The film is set in southern Georgia, which until the end of XIX century was dominated by the Ottoman Empire. Tragic times gave rise to people of high spiritual strength, such as Antimoz Iverieli – the philosopher-educator. Having experienced as a child cruelty and injustice, it becomes the path of public service. Having been removed by the Turks in Romania, a hero by all means wants to return home. Sentenced to death, Antimoz remains in the memory of his countrymen a champion of justice.
Singer Oksana has lost her beloved in the war. Everyone thinks he perished, but actually he was taken prisoner, then ran away, hid, fell into American hands, and… finally, he returns to his village, and meets Oksana.
