A enigmatic film, the opus magnum of the greates Armenian director, Sarkis Parajanian (in the USSR known as Sergei Parajanov, and experiencing hardships as a dissident), is a book of occult symbols. Its meaning remains inaccessible to us, coming from a different culture and time. Yet at the same time it is the book that invites us to discover it again and again and browse its pages in the form of beautiful animated tableaux. Its plot tells about life of eighteenth-century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, from his childhood, through years of maturation and traveling, up to his stay in a monastery and death. At the same time, each scene refers to the oeuvre of the protagonist hero and the Armenian culture, the religious and spiritual symbolism. Important part of the film is music by Tigran Mansurian, using folk instruments (duduk and kemanca) and choral chants in the foreground.