Ashik Kerib

Ashik Kerib appears to be a conclusion of the tryptich of feature films by Parajanov dedicated to the various nationalities of the Caucasus, with The Colour of Pomegranates and The Legend of Suram Fortress. With this film, the armenian director explores Azerbaijani identity, through the misadventures of an ashik, a troubadour-poet. Someone similar to Sayat-Nova, the protagonist of his The Colour of Pomegranates, although this time it's sourced from fiction, from a short story by Lermontov.

Fable-like such as The Legend of Suram Fortress, Ashik Kerib seems to be in several ways what the 1968 film The Colour of Pomegranates could have been: a similar display of coerographic, simbolic gestures, a similar use of structures to annul depth of field and "flatten the image", a similar sense of costume design can be traced in this film. Yet, Ashik Kerib has a whole sense of humour that is its own, a whole circularity that is entirely absent in Pomegranates.

Examining his filmography, Ashik Kerib seems to be the ultimate culmination of everything Parajanov was himself, a feeling enhanced by the fact that this was his final film. Parajanov was set to direct one other feature, which he planned to be his own final feature film, and would have had an autobiographical theme, but he passed away before its completion. It is a cruel destiny that Parajanov's last completed film is perhaps the one that best encapsulates what his cinema was supposed to be, despite all the limitations and difficulties. 

Ashik Kerib is a fundamental piece in Parajanov's troubled filmography, and perhaps one of the most enjoyable and accesible works of his. 

RATING: 4.5/5

Original title: აშიკ-ქერიბი

Directed by: Sergei Parajanov

Length: 76 min.

Year: 1988

Country; Georgia, Azerbaijan, USSR

Availability: Youtube

Synopsis: an ashik, poet-bard, is in love with the daughter of a powerful man, and sets on a journey to distant lands to gain fortune.