Ahhh – the obligatory stalwarts of the international film festival: girls with thick black rimmed glasses and tousled brown hair, earnest young men in jeans of varying quality, and the director in a black leather jacket. Oh yes, and the producer – being a bit of a twat.
I felt right at home as I queued up in Rustaveli 1 for the five pm showing of “Parada”. Since I speak neither Georgian nor Russian, my choice of film was a bit limited – there were two with English subtitles; one from Belgium and one from Serbia… so Serbia it was.
Bit of a glitch though. As I waited to go in, with my lovely Georgian host Nana, an American in front was saying, “But it says there are English subtitles in the programme…..”. There weren’t, well there were but on a different print. The print the cinema had only had subtitles in Russian and Georgian.
But since I had dragged Nana along, and since I was there already, I decided to put my faith in the power of film to transcend lack of language and stayed put.
I am so glad I did! My favourite film of the year. A very, very macho Serb and his unlikely crew come to the rescue of a small group of gay men and women trying to organise a Pride Parade in Belgrade. It is hilarious, brilliantly visual (it would have to be as I couldn’t understand a word) AND there is a road trip in a pink mini. Bonus!
Really it is a story about tolerance, love and human foibles. There are also some wonderful Ben Hur scenes. And it will probably make you cry. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1784575/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4
Definitely worth buying on DVD or downloading