08-01-2013

Croatia Sets New Record Opening

By
    The Priest's Children The Priest's Children

    ZAGREB: Vinko Bresan's comedy The Priest's Children set a domestic film record opening in Croatia since the country became independent. The film opened on 3 January 2013.

    The film took in 144,565 EUR/1,094,851 HRK at the box office and sold 33,759 tickets in the opening weekend, comparing favorably to the 52,000 admissions for The Hobbit in its first weekend. The results come on the heels of the success of another Croatian film, Vlatka Vorkapic's debut feature Sonja and the Bull which set a ten-year record in mid-December 2012 with 9,949 admissions and 40,000 EUR/301,975 HRK in its first weekend.

    The Priest's Children is distributed in Croatia on 17 copies by Continental Film (www.continental-film.hr).

    The Priest's Children is based on the play by award-winning writer, screenwriter and composer Mate Matišić, who adapted it for film, continuing a long collaboration between the writer and the film’s director.

    The main character is a young priest (Krešimir Mikić) who arrives on a small island in Dalmatia and starts a zealous campaign to raise the birth rate, first by piercing holes in condoms. He is helped by the local grocer (Nikša Butijer) and the pharmacist (Dražen Kuhn), precipatating a series of births and weddings that catch the interest of the bishop.

    The film was cofunded by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (www.havc.hr) and produced by Interfilm (www.interfilm.hr, which also produced Sonja and the Bull) in coproduction with Zillion Film (www.zillionfilm.com) and with the support of Eurimages (www.coe.int).

    Bresan's 1997 film How the War Started on My Island was the most viewed Croatian film since the independence, with admissions of 300,000. His second film Marshal Tito’s Spirit (2000) was also a success with admissions of 100,000. His third film, Witnesses (2003), was one of the most acclaimed Croatian films abroad, receiving awards in Berlin and Karlovy Vary.