This was Paradjanov's first film following a fifteen-year enforced silence. The Legend of Suram Fortress, co-directed by Dodo Abashidze, is a magnificent paean to Georgian culture, its plot based on a legend about the repeated efforts of the Georgian people to construct a fortress against invaders. The fortress continues to collapse until a fortune teller recalls a prophecy that a handsome young man must be walled inside alive in order for the building to stand. The son of her own lover is the sacrificial lamb. The story, at once simple and marvelous (in the literal sense), unfolds in a circular rather than linear manner, and its mythic possibilities are realized most wondrously in the film's visuals. As painterly as Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, yet elegant where that film was lusty, Legend is exquisite in the manner of a painted miniature. Its jewel-like colors and decor have the feel of a medieval illuminated manuscript.