05/10/2012 - The director of Here and There started shooting his second feature film Monument on October 3 in central Serbia

Serbian writer-director Darko Lungulov (photo) has started shooting his second feature film Monument on October 3 in central Serbia.

Lungulov wrote the first version script titled Monument Michael Jackson four years ago, before the success of his debut film Here and There [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2009, which starred Mirjana Karanović and David Thornton and won 16 international awards, and before Michael Jackson's death.

Monument is a black comedy set in 2010 in a small central Serbian town which is dying out because there are no job opportunities and young people are moving to bigger cities in search of work. Marko (Boris Milivojević), a 30-something optimist whom no one takes seriously, and whose love interest (Nataša Tapušković) is also planning to leave, decides to erect a monument to Michael Jackson, inspired by his comeback tour. His plan to bring media attention to the town and turn around the hopeless situation is ridiculed by the inhabitants, but he manages to get support by forging a letter from Jackson announcing that the performer will attend the unveiling of the monument. This brings a new breath of life to the community, and then the news of Jackson’s death arrive.

The principal photography on locations in central Serbia and Macedonian capital Skopje will take six weeks, and the all-star cast includes Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Mirjana Karanović, Dragan Bjelogrlić, Toni Mihajlovski and Branislav Trifunović.

Co-produced by Serbia's Papa Films, Germany's Penrose Films (which also co-produced Here and There), and Macedonia's Dream Factory, Monument’s approximate budget is €850,000. Financial support comes from Serbia's Ministry of Culture and culture funds of Belgrade and Vojvodina, the Macedonian Film Fund, and MFG Baden-Wurttemberg fund; as well as from the MEDIA Programme and the SEE Cinema Network Fund.