The collection "Serhiy Parajanov's Screenplays" is the thematic continuation of the collection "Screen World of Sergei Parajanov" ("Spirit and Letter", 2013/2014), which was dedicated to the films of the outstanding director. The scripts of Serhiy Paradzhanov are an important part of the artist's creative heritage. Without them, our idea of his creative style, system of images, his prediction of his own tragedy would remain incomplete. It can be argued that Parajanov's films and his unrealized scripts represent a complete and indivisible artistic world.
The book is based on the scenarios of the last decade of Serhiy Paradzhanov's life in Kyiv, namely 1965–1973. Then, after the worldwide success of the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", the director was deprived of the opportunity to realize his next plans at his home studio named after O. Dovzhenko. The list of scenarios included in the collection is as follows: "Kyiv Frescoes", "Intermezzo", "Golden Edge", "Icarus", "Miracle in Odense", "Confession".
Ukrainian and foreign experts have written comments on each of these scenarios, which will become a kind of bridge between the middle of the last century and the present. They should bring to readers the contemporary circumstances of Kyiv life and the creative atmosphere of Serhiy Paradzhanov's home, his creative environment, which was made up of famous Ukrainian artists. In addition, the book includes memories of the participants of the events and documentary materials.
The compiler of the collection of scenarios, as well as the previous one, is candidate of art history, film critic Yuriy Morozov, researcher of Serhiy Paradzhanov's work. He is also one of the authors of the comments on the director's scripts, which he carefully kept during his arrest.
The texts of the scenarios and comments complement the photo materials related to the Kyiv period of Serhiy Paradzhanov's life.
The cover uses the work of Ukrainian artist Inga Hladkyh "Through the ashes. Paradzhanov" from the series "Ukrainian Poetic Cinema", 2022.
