Customer Reviews

The Legend of Suram Fortress (Special Edition) (1984) (Sub)

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This is a beautiful movie about a fortress that keeps collapsing and a man who abandons his first love, who becomes a fortuneteller and predicts that the only way to save the fortress is to have the son of her faithless lover bricked up alive in the walls. The movie itself is richer than the plot, though, as it gives a feeling of the wide-open spaces of ancient Georgia and the rich interaction of cultures there. I was impressed by the way in which Christianity and Islam are shown as coexisting and even intertwining rather than as enemies.

The features are quite good too. The interview with Paradjanov's wife Svetlana Scherbatyuk is very interesting, and the translation is better than for some of the documentaries on other DVDs in this box set. There's another woman in the documentary who I assume is Paradjanov's second wife, although she's never identified, which is a bit frustrating. There's a short documentary on the great Georgian tragic actress Veriko Andzhaparidze, who also was in Repentance, as well as an impressive b & w short on "The Architecture of Ancient Georgia," which is an evocative look at some of the locations in the film and several other examples of Georgian architecture. The photo album and filmographies round it off nicely.

I'd definitely recommend that people watch this, with the understanding that this isn't Hollywood and has little in common with your run-of-the-mill realist movies. For those who love cinema, it's worth it.