Hakob Hovnatanyan is a documentary directed by Sergei Paradjanov about the work of the revered Gruzino-Armenian portrait painter Hakob Hovnatanyan (1806-1881), and was made shortly before the film The Color of Pomegranate. It functioned as a test run for the style Parajanov would later use in The Color of Pomegranate.
In the movie, instead of showing Hovnatanyan's paintings in their entirety, Parajanov focuses on different parts of the paintings with quick cuts, creating an interesting narrative. In the second half of the documentary, Parajanov introduces the historical center of Tbilisi, where Hovnatanyan lived and where Parajanov himself grew up.
Parajanov uses Hovnatanyan's work to stage an exercise in sonic, rhythmic, and visual patterning, fragmenting the painter's portraits to isolate certain body parts and then cutting between subtly different framings of the same image, suggesting the surprising effects that even a slight shift in point of view can bring.
