Rotterdam International Film Festival IFFR
In 1987, the legendary filmmaker Sergei Parajanov won Rotterdam Film Festival’s Best Innovative Film Award for his film The Legend of Suram Fortress. This helped lift the Iron Curtain for Paradjanov and he was allowed to leave the Soviet Union for the first time in 1988. Parajanov’s first international appearance was at the 1988 Rotterdam Film Festival where he was named one of the 20 Directors of the Future. The list also included Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, and Martin Scorsese, among others. As Mikhail Vartanov depicted in Parajanov: The Last Spring, the Soviet government persecuted Parajanov and he was unable to work for 15 years after his 1969 masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova). He was imprisoned from 1973-1977 and only permitted to direct (The Legend of Surami Fortress) in 1984. This poster of Parajanov was created during the Rotterdam Film Festival and later Parajanov transformed it into an artwork as he often did with everything around him. This image also appears on Armenia’s 1999 post stamp. In 1988, Parajanov also attended the Munich, Venice, and the New York film festivals.
Parajanov-Vartanov Institute 
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