YEREVAN (Public Radio of Armenia) — On March 25, the Central Bank of Armenia put into circulation two gold collector coins dedicated to the 100th anniversaries of birth of Sergei Paradjanov and Paruyr Sevak.
Paradjanov (Sarkis Parajaniants, 1924-1990), was a renowned Armenian film director, screenwriter, master of collage, and People’s Artist of the Armenian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics (1990). He was born in Tiflis (Tbilisi) and received his secondary education there. In 1969, at the Hayfilm studio, Paradjanov directed “The Color of Pomegranates” (“Sayat-Nova”), which is considered a masterpiece of cinema. In the film, he implements his own innovative ideas, disclosing the unseen and the spiritual through objects, symbols and rituals of his own creation. The authorities of the time disapproved of this and others of Paradjanov’s films, forbade him from filming, and imprisoned him. However, Paradjanov did not stop working and instead directed his creative energy toward making drawings, collages, dolls, hats, and other works of art.
Upon having the opportunity to make films again, he directed the internationally recognized “The Legend of Suram Fortress” (1984), and, in 1987, was invited abroad for the first time to participate in the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands, where the film won first place in the “Most Innovative Film” category.
To this day, Paradjanov’s art continues to inspire many artists and filmmakers around the world.
The coin is minted at the Mint of Poland. Its face value is 10,000 drams.
Prominent Armenian poet, literary critic, translator, and public figure Paruyr Sevak (Ghazaryan, 1924-1971), graduated from the Yerevan State University Faculty of Philology in 1945, then earned a master’s degree from the Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences M. Abeghyan Institute of Literature (1948), where he worked as a researcher from 1963 to 1971. From 1951 to 1956, he studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow, where he lectured in the Literary Translation department from 1957 through 1959. In 1969, he was awarded a Doctor of Philology degree for his “Sayat-Nova” monograph.
