This project is a collection of resources that offers an opportunity to look at Color of Pomegranate (1968) by Sergei Paradjanov, a film about a legenday Armenian Poet in 18th century as a semi-autobiography. Through the research, one can find a significant amount of parallel in between the lives of the subject matter, Sayat Nova and the director Paradjanov as both share undeniably similar ethnic and cultural background as well as the fact that both were creative minds put in exile by authoritative factor, either his religion or oppressive government. It also investigates the political and historical background of this film to suggest Paradjanovs nationalistic aspiration omnipresent throughout not only in this particular film but also in others he created.

In this book, the author Josephine Woll makes a comprehensive overview of soviet cinema during the Thaw period, 1957 to 1967, which the author divides into five parts and each part is respectively discussed and given an extensive analysis. The “Thaw” period was crucial though scarcely studied compared to the films preceded them such as Eisenstein and Vertov. Her exhaustive range of films from this period opens our eye to the relatively unknown yet crucial filmmakers and their works such as Marlen Khutsiev and his Zastava Il’icha. Woll’s study of this era fills in the gap not only in the history of the cinema, but also the history of Soviet culture, in which cinema played an indispensable role. This book shows the change brought to the cinema, as well as to society and people as a result of shifts in the government and its policy in the post-Stalin era. She argues that Khrushchev era was a time of Romanticism; “ socialism with a human face”.
Throughout this book, she makes the best case for the importance of the cinematography in the films in this era. The rise of the “poetic school” such as Tarkovsky, Paradjanov, and Muratova, which she discusses in full extend to gives the analysis they deserve. She praises Tarkovsky and Paradjanov for their simplicity and straightforwardness, and ability to reach out for wider audiences. Both directors received international appreciation, unlike any other contemporaries and were given great credit for their achievement only to find themselves in a few years later both in exile either internal or external, during which they were prohibited from making a film.