Parajanov Arrested

To the Editors:

I am deeply grieved to report that Sergei Parajanov, the Soviet film director (see letter to the editors, NYR, March 18), has been arrested again by Soviet authorities on the charge of receiving in Tiblisi (where he is under house-arrest) guests whom he should not have been receiving—so say the sources who were able to smuggle this report out of Russia, to Le Monde, the Paris newspaper.

Le Monde speculates that the arrest may have been the result of the great success his film, Sayat Nova, banned in Russia, is having in Paris theaters.

Readers of this publication who believe in freedom of expression for artists everywhere should take what steps they can to create an atmosphere of public indignation here about the treatment of a man who has already served a prison sentence of what Le Monde calls “imaginary misconduct.”

Leo Hamalian

The City College, CUNY

New York City