The Two Sayats: The Color of Pomegranates (1969) & the novel The Highlands Burn (2026) (feat. THB author Joe Kassabian & theatre actress Mari Vial-Golden)

Episode recorded: April 18th, 2026 (04/18/2026) April is the Armenian American Heritage Month, this means Jay is going to talk about The Color of Pomegranates, that one Armenian movie he mentioned in last year’s Halloween Special. Before that, he invited two creatives of Armenian background - one is his close friend and another is a novelist who has his latest novel publishing soon. Mari Vial-Golden is a theatre actress while Joe Kassabian is a military history podcaster with his gunpowder fantasy novel The Highlands Burn soon coming out. By pure coincidence, The Color of Pomegranates is about a real-life ashugh Sayat-Nova, and the main character of The Highlands Burn is named Sayat. Before going into Sergei Parajanov’s tableau vivants movie, Jay is going to ask Joe about the inspirations behind his upcoming novel. After that, we will deep dive into Parajanov's filmography, his influences from illustrated manuscripts, Armenia’s rich animation culture, and whether The Highlands Burn would be considered as “the first Armenian anime”?   And sorry for Jay explaining the summary of these Armenian shorts poorly.   The Color of Pomegranates is currently distributed by Janus Films. It is now part of the Criterion Collection and available on video-on-demand, streaming, blu-ray, and DVD.    Mari’s website: https://www.marivialgolden.com/   Joe Kassabian’s social media profile: https://bsky.app/profile/jkass99.bsky.social   Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys   Pre-order Joe Kassabian’s The Highlands Burn: https://a.co/d/09pahrj0   Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/ReAnimateTHISPodcast   For inquiries: jay@box.jaywhangmakes.com   Some promotions, shout outs, and fundraising:   Scout Tafoya’s Stubborn Beast GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/383ef7b6b   Link to the ticket page for the premiere of Ryan’s short Dork at the Coney Island Film Festival:    https://www.coneyisland.com/2026-ciff/program-7   Link to the ticket page for the New York City screening of Hellavision Television’s CUNT-A-VISION 2.0: Fix Your Heart Or Die:    https://restlessnites.com/events/hellavisioncuntavision21may2026   For info on more screenings of Hellavision Television’s CUNT-A-VISION 2.0: Fix Your Heart Or Die:    https://www.hellavisiontelevision.com/episodes/cunt-a-vision-2-0-fix-your-hearts-or-die   https://www.hellavisiontelevision.com/links   ARMOR Coalition: https://www.instagram.com/armorcoalition/   The Garod Collective: https://www.instagram.com/garod_collective/   Arshak Makichyan: https://www.instagram.com/makichyan.arshak/   Warren Manvelyan: https://www.instagram.com/warren.manvelyan/   Anoush Ter Taulian:   https://www.instagram.com/anoushforjustice/   (for funds to help the displaced people of Artsakh): https://venmo.com/u/anoushforjustice   https://freearmenianprisoners.com/   For Vrej Khatchatyran’s education fund: https://donorbox.org/my-sweet-land-vrejs-fund   Intro music: WANDERLUST (Celest3 mix) by Celest3 - https://celest3.bandcamp.com/track/wanderlust-celest3-mix (CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Ad break music: Early Riser by Kevin MacLeod - <a href='https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod