Sergei Parajanov in love and war

Welcome back to season six of the Klassiki Podcast! Thank you so much to all our returning listeners and welcome to our new ones. We’ve got ten episodes lined up including some great interviews to tie in with the programming coming up this spring on Klassiki.

Right now on Klassiki we’re celebrating an icon with our collection Perspectives on Parajanov, featuring Zara Jian’s revelatory 2024 documentary, I Will Revenge this World with Love – S. Paradjanov. Against the backdrop of the war on Ukraine and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, Zara’s film explores the example of artistic and political courage that Parajanov set for the modern world. We’re presenting the documentary alongside the great man’s own final two features: The Legend of Suram Fortress (1985), which draws on a Georgian national myth, and Ashik Kerib (1988), Parajanov’s tribute to the folk poetry of Azerbaijan and Persia.

To kick off the season, I asked Zara Jian to join me on the pod to discuss the eternal appeal of Sergei Parajanov, where his cosmopolitan work sits in a nationalist world, and her personal response to his late-career masterpieces – produced at a time when he was in ill health after years in and out of prison but determined to leave his mark on the cinema of the Caucasus.

Watch I Will Revenge this World with Love – S. Paradjanov on Klassiki until 12 March as part of our collection Perspectives on Parajanov.

Listen to our episode on Parajanov’s centenary here.

Read Daniel Bird’s take on Parajanov’s groundbreaking short Hakob Hovnatanyan here.

Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online.

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Intro music by Juliet Merchant.