Second Sight and THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES (review)

Long unseen in its original version, Sergei Parajanov's THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES charts the life of poet and troubador Sayat Nova through his birth, childhood, his ill-fated love of a princess, his ordination into the Armenian Christian church, and his execution by the invading Persian army in a series of wildy experimental and highly visual tableau that visualize the poet's inner world.

REVIEW LINK: Second Sight (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 pillarboxed fullscreen transfers of the restored Armenian version (79 minutes) and the Russian recut version (72 minutes)
• Georgian/Armenian LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles
• Annotated Subtitle Commentary by academic James Steffens on the Armenian Version
• Audio Commentary by cultural anthropologist Levon Abrahamyan on the Russian Version
• Disc Two:
• Sergei Parajanov's short film "Kiev Frescoes" (with optional annotated subtitle commentary by Daniel Bird)
• "Poetry, Pomegranates and Parajanov" visual essay by Daniel Bird
• "Pomegranates Rediscovered" Cecilia Penciarelli of Bologna Cineteca on the multi-national efort to save the film
• "Free Parajnov!" Tony Rayns on the campaign to free Parajanov
• "The World is a Window: The Making of the Colour of Pomegranates" documentary (76 minuts)
• "Memories About Sayat Nova" Levon Grigoryan's documentary feature extracts from the rushes
• "Parajanov: A Requiem" documentary (59 minutes)
• Limited edition featuring a 114-page book featuring Martin Scorcese introduction, archive material, new writings, costume designs, storyboards and original literary script