The Colour Of Pomegranates

To mark the first UK release of The Colour Of Pomegranates, Second Sight has provided a respectable assortment of extras.

There is the usual attention given to an historic ‘masterpiece’ such as this in an introduction and commentary provided by academics Daniel Bird and Levon Abrahamyan. Bird’s introduction is brief and gives no indication of what the film is about or the impact he had. Instead he rattles on about the lack of a definitive ‘directors cut’ version of the film. The commentary does help to offer some insight into the film and the filmmakers intentions, but is more often than not stilted, vague and suffering from lengthy periods of silence. There’s also a nice, and brief, eulogy of sorts from assistant director Levon Grigoryan.

Where this release really comes into its own, though, is in the newly commissioned documentary The World Is A Window: Making The Colour Of Pomegranates. This is a fascinating and rewarding piece, longer than the film it’s documenting, which helps to shed much needed light on both Sayat Nova and director Sergei Parajanov. Indeed, it’s much more enjoyable than the film itself.

Both the picture and audio clarity do justice to the vivid beauty of the film more than 40 years after its production, and there are new (yet still infuriating) subtitles to go with it.