Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa, 1984
[The Legend of Suram Fortress]
A traditional Georgian folktale recounts the
story of a powerful medieval overlord who sought to fortify the
most vulnerable territory within his vast and far-reaching empire,
the remote kingdom of Surami, through the envisioned construction
of the formidable Suram Fortress. However, the completion of the
ambitiously conceived, large-scale fortification project soon proves
to be elusive as the construction reveals its own peculiar and
insurmountable challenge (and looming prospect of futile interminability)
as the newly erected walls (using a quaint mortar conconction that
is binded with stones, straw, and poultry eggs) continually collapse
under their own crushing weight. Within this atmosphere of uncertain
and looming enemy attack, arduous (and frustrating) toil, and economic
austerity, a young peasant woman named Vardo (Leila Alibegashvili)
- with a particular aptitude for divining the sex of an unborn
child - is summoned to the castle against the trepidation of her
lover, a court emissary and troubadour named Durmishkhan (Zurab
Kipshidze) who believes that, as fate had befallen other maidens
who were similarly issued such an ambiguous invitation, she will
be indefinitely held captive and forced to serve the whims of their
feudal lord. Nevertheless, Vardo's circumstances would seem to
turn auspicious after endearing herself to the court by correctly
predicting the princess' child and heir to the throne. Released
from her servant duties by a grateful court, Vardo is soon reunited
wither lover, only to be separated by fate once again when Durmishkhan
sets out, at the prince's instigation, to seek his fortune. Cruelly
discovering first-hand the inconstancy of the prince's shallow
allegiance, the broken Durmishkhan is taken under the protective
wing of a benevolent and nomadic merchant and goods trader named
Osman-Aga (Dodo Abashidze), who introduces him to a brave new
world of unlimited opportunity, leading him ever further away from
the crumbling, impermanent walls of the Suram Fortress and his
beloved, heartbroken Vardo.
Filmed in the aftermath of 15 years of artistic
censorship in the Soviet Union (and following what would prove
to be the filmmaker's final release from prison in 1983 after a
protracted series of revolving door sentences on a litany of dubious
state charges), The Legend of Suram Fortress is a richly textured,
inimitably iconoclastic, startlingly vibrant, and elliptical yet
poetic and intrinsically cohesive tale of sacrifice, captivity,
and the fickle mutability of fate. Rooted in the traditional iconography
of Byzantine art, Paradjanov's visual aesthetics similarly incorporate
rigid framing, frontal portraitures, still life arrangements, voluptuous
ornamentation, and distanced (and alienating) long shots that capture
symmetric, but physically contrasting elongated forms (most notably,
in the crane shot parallel geometry of wooden caskets and hanging
handcrafted rugs) that paradoxically juxtapose vast, open spaces
with dark interiors (the claustrophobic wedding chapel and the
soothsayer's primitively furnished home), confined structures (the
walls of Suram fortress), and historically recurring episodes of
human bondage (Osman-Aga's recounted tale of captivity in his youth
that parallels Vardo's earlier imprisonment and forced servitude).
Using a culturally beloved ancient tale as an elegantly simple,
but deeply personal metaphor for spiritual imprisonment, exile,
and martyrdom, Paradjanov distills the narrative into a sequence
of elliptical and densely layered compositions that interweave
primitive, folkloric, mythologic, (Eastern Orthodoxy) religious,
and (sociopolitical) allegorical imagery into a somber and pensive,
yet resilient and affirming visual tapestry that indelibly capture
the complex, often bittersweet panorama of personal travail and
enduring human legacy.
© Acquarello 2004. All rights reserved.
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