It feels at once specific to a certain time—presumably that of its subject, 18th-century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova—but still timeless, either of all time or none with which we’d be familiar.

It's a strange, visionary work, highly formal and not easy of access, but compelling in a way that's almost impossible to describe.

Paradjanov scares up one startling sequence after another, crafting a bizarre mosaic of Nova's world while limiting himself to the materials of the poet's time.

Beneath this simplicity, Parajanov frames a cinematic poem—subtle and aesthetically beautiful in its formalist style—as a succession of tableaux vivants, almost devoid of dialogue, evoking the existential struggle of a poet. [Full review in Spanish]