15/12/2011

Serbian director Srdjan Dragojević's The Parade starts its theatrical distribution this week in Croatia and nextweek in Slovenia, after selling almost 250,000 admissions in Serbia.

The comedy tells the story of war hero and petty criminal Limun (Nikola Kojo) who, through a series of humorous coincidences, agrees to protect Belgrade gay pride after the police refuse to do it. As he cannot find support among Serbian friends who have no intention of being associated with gays, Limun turns to his old enemies from Balkan wars of the 1990s, such as Bosnian Halil(Croatian actor-director Dejan Aćimović), Croatian Roko (Croatia's Goran Navojec) and Kosovo Albanian Azem (Macedonia's Toni Mihajlovski).

Dragojević has been very popular in Serbia since his 1992 debut We Are Not Angels, and is best known internationally for Pretty Village Pretty Flame (1995), both featuring Kojo, the biggest star of his generation in Serbia. The release in Serbia six weeks ago coincided with cancellation of an actual Belgrade gay pride festival for exactly the same reasons as in the film - the authorities claimed they were not able to secure the event. The film earned gross a BO of €710,558 and is still on release through Cinefest.

After release in Republic of Srpska (21,736 admissions, distributor Oskar) and Montenegro (7,645, Cinefest), The Parade premiered in Zagreb on December 12 and spreads across Croatia this week through distributor Blitz. Slovenian premiere is scheduled for December 20 through Cinemania Group, and in Macedonia it rolls out on December 17 through Filmstar.

The co-production between Serbia's Delirium and Prva Srpska Televizija, Croatia's Mainframe, Slovenia's Forum and Macedonia's Sektor Film, in association with London-based Film and Music Entertainment, received support from Film Centre Serbia, Slovenian Film Centre, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Macedonian Film Fund Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, and Eurimages. WIDE Management is handling international rights.