Gay pride movie an unlikely Balkans box office hit

Gay rom-com "The Parade" has won plaudits and been a surprise box office hit in the Balkans, but not everyone loved it -- it also earned its Serbian director several smashed car windows. The comic tale of a homosexual couple struggling to organise a gay pride parade in Belgrade had its premiere outside the region at the Berlin Film Festival this week, after already causing a sensation at home. In a region where homophobia remains deeply entrenched and far-right groups have launched violent attacks on gay street festivals, the movie topped the box office in Serbia in 2011, drawing an audience of 300,000. Another 200,000 people have watched it in Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro -- proof, says its director Srdjan Dragojevic, that attitudes are slowly shifting. "Those numbers for probably the most homophobic region in Europe are definitely a positive sign," he told AFP. When news first trickled out that Dragojevic was working on a gay-theme film, ultra-nationalist groups called for a boycott and the director had his car windshield smashed "a couple of times", he said. Since then the film has launched a long-overdue discussion in Serb society, said one of the biggest gay rights organisations, the Gay Straight Alliance. "People generally know almost nothing about gay people, our lives, the problems we have," said the group's Lazar Pavlovic. Belgrade's first gay pride event in 2001 was broken up by hooligans. In 2010, a gay pride parade was held under heavy police guard, but clashes between police and ultra-nationalists left more than 150 people wounded. Last year the parade was banned by police over security concerns. Pavlovic said that the movie had got people thinking about gay rights. "In the past few months, you could often hear discussions among people about the movie on the street, on the bus or in shops," he said. "In the long run 'The Parade' could bring some positive changes in the lives of gay people in Serbia." The movie -- shown in the Berlinale special Panorama programme showcasing international auteur cinema -- tells the story of a gay couple, Mirko and Radmilo, as they try to organise a pride parade in Belgrade. They enlist a shady war veteran to protect the gathering. He in turn calls on his former buddies and adversaries from the Yugoslav wars to help him: a Croatian, a Bosnian Muslim and a Kosovo Albanian. The story quickly descends into a kind of slapstick comedy that draws on common prejudices and stereotypes -- the gay protagonist drives a hot pink car and drinks his brandy with his pinky finger up. The Croatian ex-fighter, meanwhile, works in a bar plastered with portraits of Croat general Ante Gotovina -- who is revered as a war hero there despite having been convicted of war crimes by a UN court. The film earned positive reviews in Serbia's mainstream media. The Blic daily praised its "uncontrolled humour, raunchy street language and playing with stereotypes" while the more high-brow Politika paper deemed it "a highly watchable, fast-paced populist film". Despite its in-your-face style, the movie does not shy away from some hard truths and one of the protagonists is killed in the end. "The tragic end... portrays the reality of Serbian gay people's lives," Pavlovic said. "For me and other gays that moment was not shocking, but I am pretty sure it has a sobering potential for others in Serbia and the region." Dragojevic admits he made the movie to educate the public but says he did not set out to break taboos. "The film spells out a simple truth: gay people are the same as everyone else... and the audience understood that," he said. Nonetheless, the movie's message proved too controversial when Dragojevic organised free screenings for high school principals and teachers, asking them to recommend the film to their pupils. The media accused Dragojevic of trying to indoctrinate schoolchildren, and most teachers shied away from recommending the film, he said. "Intolerant, homophobic Serbia won that time, but that was just one battle," he said. "In the long run, we will win."