Poets on Film: The Color of Pomegranates Is a Poet Biopic That Isn't a Biopic

Sergei Parajanov's 1969 masterpiece is one of the most unconventional depictions of a poet's life ever put to celluloid, but the question of whether or not it's a biopic is an interesting one.

I’ve repeatedly asked a question that plagues me: what do we want from a biopic of a poet?

Do we want actual poetry? If so, do we want to hear it? See it on screen? Both? Do we want artistic shaping of the biography or bare-bones truth? Do we want to know about the poet’s personal life exclusively, or should the poet’s artistic life take center stage?

While watching Sergei Parajanov’s visual masterpiece, The Color of Pomegranates (1969), I thought of another question to add to this list: does a biopic of a poet have to be a biography at all?