SOUTH-EAST EUROPE TERRITORY FOCUS
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO In 2011, Serbia produced, along with Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Mon- tenegro, the first true regional block- buster, The Parade, directed by Srdjan Dragojevic. Drawing 338,057 admis- sions in Serbia and Montenegro (a total of 561,658 in all of former Yugoslavia), the comedy went on to win three prizes at the 2012 Berlinale. Local hit Montevideo: Taste Of A
Dream sold more than 470,000 tickets, and these two releases are largely responsible for the 27% rise in total admissions in 2011. Prospects continue to look bright this
year, even before the summer blockbust- ers, with more than 760,000 admissions in the first quarter including 211,000 from local success story Professor Vujic’s Hat. Serbia’s biggest festival success, Maja Milos’ Clip, had a lacklustre per- formance at the box offi ce. Multiplexes are fi nally taking root in
Serbia and Montenegro. In 2011 and 2012, the three largest cities after Bel- grade — Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac, with a combined population of more than 700,000 — saw theatres with a total of 16 screens, after fi ve years with- out a cinema. New multiplexes are expected to open in Subotica by 2013 and in Belgrade by 2014. “Serbia is currently the most progres-
sive territory in Europe [in exhibition development],” says Igor Stankovic, CEO of distribution and exhibition company MegaCom Film which brought the Aus- trian chain Cineplexx to Serbia. “With multiplexing and digitisation, we expect that by 2017 the number of admissions will double, up to 5 million.” Though Montenegro has been an
independent state since 2006, theatrical distribution still works through Serbian companies. Last year the country fi nally produced two national fi lms, Nemanja Becanovic’s The Ascent and Branko Baletic’s Local Vampire.
CROATIA The Croatian box offi ce was dominated by Hollywood product last year, but the real winner in the territory, where local fi lms rarely sell more than 15,000 tick- ets, was the children’s cult novel adapta- tion Koko And The Ghosts by Daniel Kusan. The Kinorama production sold 79,384 tickets, grossing $281,688 between October 2011 and February 2012, scoring the best local opening in
www.screendaily.com Vladimir Blazevski’s Punk’s Not Dead
‘Serbia is currently the most progressive territory in Europe in terms of exhibition
development’ Igor Stankovic, MegaCom Film
five years and becoming the second- highest local grosser since 2002. Kinor- ama is now preparing a sequel. The Parade, released in December
2011, fi nished its run in Croatia after 20 weeks with an impressive 167,429 admissions and a box-office gross of $781,452. In May, the Croatian Audiovisual
Centre announced support for the digi- tisation of independent cinemas. Cur- rently Croatia has the largest number of digital screens in the region, 90 out of a total of 136. It also has the strongest fes- tival scene, with festivals in Motovun and Zagreb driving interest for inde- pendent fi lms.
SLOVENIA In 2011, the Slovenian Film Fund trans- formed into the Slovenian Film Centre. The key difference is that the centre is now a public agency that subsidises fi lm productions, whereas the fund used to invest in film projects and share the box-offi ce income with the producers. Slovenia produced seven films in
THE PICK OF SARAJEVO Children Of Sarajevo
This year’s Competition section at the Sarajevo Film Festival will include the world premiere of Austrian director Florian Flicker’s Crossing Boundaries and the international premiere of Serbian director Miroslav Terzic’s debut feature Redemption Street, a political thriller starring Rade Serbedzija. Regional premieres include Aida Begic’s Children Of Sarajevo; Radu Jude’s Everybody
2011, including two majority co-pro- ductions. The country also participated as a minority co-producer on eight
In Our Family; Turkey’s The Voice Of My Father by Orhan Eskikoy and Zeynel Dogan, which participated in CineLink 2010 and premiered this year in Rotterdam; and Emin Alper’s Beyond The Hill, which won prizes in Berlin and Istanbul. Sarajevo’s In Focus sidebar
presents regional fi lms that screened and won awards at big international festivals. This year it includes Bence Fliegauf’s Just The
regional projects, including The Parade which sold 32,872 tickets and grossed $193,140. Theatrical attendance in 2011 stayed
at about the same level as 2010 — around 2.9 million admissions, with a total box offi ce of nearly $16m. This is by far the highest per capita attendance in the region, as Slovenia’s population is only 2 million people. Slovenia had a minor festival hit in
2011 with Nejc Gazvoda’s debut A Trip which world-premiered in Sarajevo and went on to more than 20 international festivals. It drew 12,985 admissions and grossed $59,953, an impressive show- ing for a Slovenian arthouse fi lm.
MACEDONIA Macedonia has had two strong festival fi lms in the last couple of years: Vladimir Blazevski’s low-budget Punk’s Not Dead, which won Karlovy Vary’s East of the West award in 2011, and Teona Strugar Mitevska’s The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears, co-produced with Germany, Slovenia and Belgium and starring Vic- toria Abril, which premiered at the 2012 Berlinale. Macedonia currently has only 20 screens for its 2 million inhabitants, so Punk’s Not Dead’s 13,274 admissions is considered a success. But a nine- screen multiplex will open in the capital Skopje in September, which should finally create an opportunity for addi- tional fi lms to be released in the terri- tory, including studio product. Meanwhile, the region’s best known
actor internationally, Rade Serbedzija, is preparing his directorial debut in Mac- edonia, the Second World War epic The Liberation Of Skopje, produced by Party- sans Production, which has been awarded $623,000 from the Macedo- nian Film Fund.
s
Wind, winner of this year’s Silver Bear in Berlin; Maja Milos’ Clip, winner of a Rotterdam Tiger award; Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps, which world premiered last year in Venice where it won best screenplay; and Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond The Hills, which won best screenplay and best actress in Cannes. In Focus will also pay tribute to Turkish director Seyfi Teoman, who died in May, by screening his fi lm Summer Book.
June-July 2012 Screen International 17 ■
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