The current festival devoted to the films and art of Sergei Paradjanov in London and Bristol is the most comprehensive ever mounted in this country and was a long overdue celebration of this most persecuted and visionary of directors. Those two attributes imply a martyrdom that was belied by Paradjanov’s joie de vivre, as evidenced by the vivacity and inventiveness of his films, the prodigality of his gifts and the spiritual generosity and conviviality of his daily existence, clearly visible in the intimate photographs taken by his friend Yuri Mechitov, mounted in an exhibition at the National Theatre.