Sofiko Chiaureli

Stage and film actress

1937–2008

Sofiko Chiaureli (1937–2008) was born in Tbilisi into a family where film and theatre were the household trade: her father Mikheil Chiaureli was a director, her mother Veriko Anjaparidze one of Georgia's leading actresses. She graduated from the film institute in Moscow and for almost half a century acted on the stage of the Marjanishvili Theatre.

She is called the muse of Sergei Parajanov. In his “Sayat Nova” of 1968 she played several roles at once, among them the poet's muse, and later appeared in his “The Legend of Suram Fortress” and “Ashik Kerib”. Audiences also know her from “Khevsurian Ballad”, “Don't Grieve”, “The Wishing Tree” and “A Piece of Sky”.

Chiaureli won the best actress award at the Locarno festival in 1965, triumphed three times at the All-Union Film Festival and received the USSR State Prize. She was married to the director Giorgi Shengelaia and later to the actor and sports commentator Kote Makharadze. A monument to her stands in Tbilisi.