Parajanov & Vartanov were both born outside of Armenia but came to their ancestral homeland and created there their film masterpieces, The Color of Pomegranates and The Last Spring, respectively.
Both Parajanov & Vartanov married beautiful girls named Svetlana. Both Svetlana Parajanov and Svetlana Vartanov were over 15 years younger than their filmmaker husbands.
Both Parajanov’s and Vartanov’s firstborns were boys, Suren Parajanov and Martiros Vartanov, who are also friends. They had both appeared in the films of their fathers, and are dedicated to preserving their legacy.
Parajanov & Vartanov had both worked with composer Tigran Mansurian who created the soundtracks of their films The Color of Pomegranates (1969) and The Color of Armenian Land (1969), respectively.
Parajanov & Vartanov were graduates of the world’s oldest film school, the legendary Moscow Film Institute (V.G.I.K.). They both became filmmakers during USSR’s thaw period (De-Stalinization reforms) but afterwards they endured many years of persecution by the Soviet government.
Parajanov was imprisoned and Vartanov was blacklisted and fired all in the same year of 1974.
Parajanov & Vartanov were both allowed to return to directing in 1984.
Parajanov & Vartanov won the prestigious Russian Academy Awards in Moscow. Both of them received the honors for their final (completed) films: Ashik Kerib and The Last Spring, respectively.
Tarkovsky had once inscribed and sent his child’s drawing from Russia to Ukraine to the imprisoned Parajanov, who annotated and forwarded it to Armenia to Vartanov’s son Martiros. Later, Parajanov dedicated Ashik Kerib (1988) to Tarkovsky, to whom Vartanov dedicated a chapter of The Last Spring (1992).
Parajanov’s final (unfinished) film The Confession was edited per his wishes into Vartanov’s The Last Spring and turned out to be his final film also.
Parajanov & Vartanov both passed away outside of their birthplaces. Parajanov was laid to rest at Armenia’s Pantheon, near William Saroyan and Aram Khachaturian, while Vartanov’s resting place is at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, near Buster Keaton and Fritz Lang.
Parajanov-Vartanov Institute 