The Legend of Suram Fortress

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The Legend of the Suram Fortress (Georgian: Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa) (1984) is film directed by Georgian SSR-born Soviet-Armenian director Sergei Parajanov, his first film after 15 years of censorship in the Soviet Union, a film stylistically linked with his earlier The Color of Pomegranates (1968): The film consists in a series of tableaux; once again minimal dialog is used; the film abounds in surreal, almost oneiric power.

1 Cast
2 Plot
3 Theme
4 Awards & Recognition
5 External links

[edit] Cast

Veriko Andjaparidze ... Fortune Teller
Tamari Tsitsishvili
Dudukhana Tserodze ... Osman-Agha's Mother
Dodo Abashidze ... Osman-Agha/Simon
Sofiko Chiaureli ... Vardo
Zura Kipshidze ... Durmish-Khan
Levan Uchaneishvili ... Zurab (as L. Uchaneishvili)

[edit] Plot

The story is a retelling of a well-known Georgian folk-tale brought into written literature by the 19th-century writer Daniel Chonkadze. A fortress collapses until a fortune teller remembers an old prophecy that the son of her former lover must be bricked up alive in order for the fortress to stand. The young man is faced with the prospect of sacrificing himself to save his country.

[edit] Theme

It is a story of exiles, poverty, serfdom, murder and the supernatural, with stories within stories, and an almost buoyant ending celebrating resistance and culture.

[edit] Awards & Recognition

1986: Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival - Caixa de Catalunya Award
1987: Rotterdam International Film Festival - Rotterdam Award
1987: São Paulo International Film Festival - Critics Award

"Pure Paradjanov! A medieval spectacle...As if an Oldenburg Happening had been staged at the court of Harun Al-Rashid." - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

"Deliriously abstract...An exquisite tableau." - The Chicago Tribune