Love the cartoon
^^
I've been going through the program of Montreal's
Festival des film du monde, here's a another interesting find,
The Parade, a gay-themed film from wait for it, Serbia(!). It was apparently a surprise hit there:
Here's a scathing review by Jay Weissberg:"Billed as the first pan-Yugoslav feature (minus Bosnia) since the country's break-up, "The Parade" sees itself as a genial satire, but Srdjan Dragojevic's tired and tiresome caricatures are just embarrassing. Using formulaic traits -- effeminate gay men, over-macho nationalists -- to convince auds to confront their homophobia might work for anyone still thinking Paul Lynde is fresh, but viewers who've watched gay-themed pics mature since the 1970s will cringe at this naively well-meaning but hopelessly dated farce. Local admissions have been strong, but more discriminating offshore queer showcases should avoid.
Dragojevic has made winning broad comedies before, but "Parade" recycles every cartoonish stereotype without finding anything real underneath. Bridal designer Mirko (Goran Jevtic) and his gay-rights colleagues in Belgrade are terrorized by gay-bashing thugs and abandoned by the cops. Partner Radmilo (Milosh Samolov), a vet, convinces Serb nationalist Lemon (Nikola Kojo) to offer protection in exchange for a tasteless wedding bash with gf Pearl (Hristina Popovic). Lemon calls in favors from former enemies in other ex-Yugoslav countries and confronts his own prejudices. If the pic helps combat Yugo homophobia then it's worthwhile, but this is one comedy best left at home.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117947094/Mark Adams of Screen Daily is more forgiving:"A rude and raunchy challenge to Balkan homophobia, The Parade (Parada) may be the most un-PC of films around, but it smartly celebrates those very un-PC qualities as it turns transgression into comedy, detailing the very real battlefield between machismo and gay pride.Written and directed by Srđjan Dragojevic, The Parade has proved to be a surprise success in the Balkans, and Serbia in particular where it has achieved more than 500,000 admissions. And this in a country where 5,000 police had to guard the 1,000 people who made up the 2010 Pride march. The film may intrigue buyers aware of its comedy success, though whether gay and lesbian festivals will embrace it remains to be seen.
It is broad comedy fare that revels in its stereotyping and takes no prisoners with its deliberately scattershot approach. Srđjan Dragojevic directs with a good deal of intelligence, and is very much aware that his unsubtle characters offer an entertaining look at the culture clash between brutal Balkan machismo and a gay community that suffers violent attacks with little support or assistance from the authorities.
The film sets out its position right from the start. It opens with a glossary of slang terms – ‘Shiptar’ (derogatory term for Kosovar Albanians), ‘Chetnik’ (for Serbs), ‘Ustasha’ (for Croats) and ‘Balija’ (for Bosnians) – that the various factions in the Yugoslavian war used about each other…but ends pointing out that the term ‘Peder’ is the one that unites the factions when they refer to homosexuals.
The two worlds come together when Lemon (Kojo), an ex-criminal and war veteran has to rush his pet pit-bull terrier to the vet after it is the victim of a drive-by shooting. The dog is saved by vet Mirko (Jetvic), who is appalled by Lemon’s bombastic behavior. Mirko is the partner of Radmillo (Samolov), who runs an agency that organises weddings and has been approached by Lemon’s fiancée Pearl (Popović) to organise her wedding to Lemon.
Gay activist Radmillo, who is planning Belgrade’s Pride march, balks about the thought of organising the event but eventually agrees…on the condition that Lemon, who runs a judo gym and security company, agrees to provide security for the march. Lemon reluctantly agrees, but when his staff all refuse to protect the march he is forced recruit his old enemies from his war-time days, and heads off with Mirko (in his bright pink mini) in accompaniment.
They manage to sign up Croat Niko (Navojec); Bosnian Muslim Halil (Aćimovic) and Kosovo Albanian Azem (Mihailovski) and they return to Belgrade to face their greatest challenge…protecting the march for marauding homophobic skinheads.
The characters are all broadly drawn, though the wonderfully stoney faced Nikola Kojo is the rock that holds the film together, with Hristina Popović also amusing as the determined Pearl…her finest moment comes when she slips on a flack-jacket to help Lemon and his men fight off the skinheads – but only if it will take an hour as she has parked her car at a meter."
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/the-parade/5037646.articleDirector's Statement"In the late 1970s, a small park just below Hotel Moskva in downtown Belgrade was the gathering place for some twenty of us, punk rock fans. The same park was the gathering place for homosexuals, too. Not far from us, these neatly dressed family men with impeccable socialistic biographies were looking for partners. Besides sharing the same location, we had just one more thing in common - both groups were repeated bashing targets for healthy looking, and "healthy" thinking young men. They couldn't stand the sight of us, with our safety pins, dyed hair and ragged clothes, as well as the other group, but only because of their different sexual orientation.
Over the following decades, Belgrade has seen much "weirder" looks than our silly clothing style that was just a mere revolt against the Socialist life. No-one gets bashed anymore because of the clothes they wear or the music that they listen to. But even today, in Serbia 2011, these "healthy" looking young men beat up men and women of a different sexual orientation not only in parks but also on the streets of Belgrade.
After the fall of the Milošević's regime, we thought that sexual minorities would finally gain their rights and dignity. In 2001, there was even an attempt to organize the first Pride Parade in the history of Serbia. The attempt ended in bloodshed - some thirty gay activists were brutally beaten up by football hooligans and neo-Nazis while the police just stood by doing nothing to stop this massacre. Images of this savage beating circled the globe and shattered the hope for young Serbian democracy, and the European Union revoked €50 million of financial help for Serbia. A decade later, nothing has improved in this regard.
On the contrary – with a "little help" from Orthodox church, a wide specter of quasi-democrat politicians in power and mass desperation and frustration induced by wild and brutal social-economic transition from the socialist-communist self-management model to capitalist free market economy, things have never been worse on the human rights front – especially LGBT rights. For me, three-year process to finish this film was much more than regular film making. Faced with threats from nationalist and neo-nazi organizations, shooting almost secretly, with constant lack of money, I have always had in mind that making Parada is my citizen's duty.
Now, when the film is done, I believe even more that Serbia badly needs this story in 2011, just as I believed, more than a decade ago, that my country needed a film that would speak about the war and guilt in a different voice from the official line. The result was Pretty Village, Pretty Flame and two years later The Wounds, with a movie theater audience of more than 1.5 million people overall. These two films were the first to spark the debate about the war and the responsibility for violent conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia.
I strongly believe that Parada will have a similar effect on the Serbian nation. They will scream, they will shout but – they’re going to watch it. And when they watch it – maybe they will think and reconsider their prejudices and stereotypes toward those whose only guilt is that they're different. I was shooting the ending of Parada during last year's pride in Belgrade, the first "successful" Pride in Serbia's history. The only success was that participants stayed alive. Six and a half thousand policemen were protecting less than thousand gay activists & friends against seven thousand hooligans and neo-nazis. The result of the pride was 300 wounded policeman and hooligans and demolition of Belgrade's downtown. I strongly believe that `The Parade` will help so we can enjoy happy and joyfull Pride in Belgrade in following years. Sometimes, Art can work in that way..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parade_(film)
The trailer. unfortunately it's not sub-titled:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3qv-OkIo6s[/youtube]
Eye candy alert. Serbian singer and heartthrob
Relja Popovic aka
Drema plays the main character's homophobic skinhead son:
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