The Parade () is a 2011 Serbian comedy-drama film, written and directed by Srđan Dragojević and released on 31 October 2011. The film, which deals with LGBT rights issues in Serbia, features footage of the 2010 Belgrade gay pride parade.
Despite the controversial subject, The Parade sold over 350,000 tickets in Serbian cinemas in the first 11 weeks of distribution, 150,000 in Croatia after 8 weeks, 25,000 in Slovenia, 40,000 in Bosnia-Herzegovina and 20,000 in Montenegro.
Plot
A group of gay activists are trying to organize a pride parade in Belgrade. Among them is Mirko Dedijer, a struggling theater director who mostly makes a living by planning lavish and kitschy wedding ceremonies. Organizing such a parade is no easy task in Serbia as evidenced by the violence at the 2001 attempt. Now, almost a decade later, the situation is not much better – nationalist and right wing groups pose just as much threat particularly as the police refuse to secure the event. Mirko's effeminate boyfriend Radmilo, a veterinarian, is not as political and is content with keeping a low profile. Although the two try to live discreetly, both experience abuse from the homophobic majority.
In parallel, we meet Miško Drašković a.k.a. Limun, a macho Serbian veteran of the Yugoslav Wars in his mid-to-late forties. No stranger to criminal activities, divorced Limun operates a judo club that doubles as a bodyguard agency (whose clientele mostly consists of nouveau riche businessmen and female turbo-folk singers) while dating Biserka, a younger, low-brow ditzy trophy girlfriend who runs a beauty parlour. His son from a previous marriage, Vuk, works in an auto repair shop and is a member of a fringe right-wing skinhead group that attacks gay people.
The paths of the two couples cross. Radmilo performs a life-saving operation on Limun's beloved bulldog, the victim of a drive-by shooting that served as a warning to its master. Simultaneously, Biserka seeks out Mirko with a view of hiring him to plan hers and Limun's wedding. The eventual meeting of the two couples goes horribly wrong with Limun's violent and homophobic side emerging, which serves as the final catalyst for Mirko to leave Serbia for Canada (leaving Radmilo behind) and for Biserka to leave Limun.
Biserka decides to end contact with Limun but calls Mirko to apologize. Radmilo picks up the phone and, learning of the circumstances of Biserka and Limun, sees an opportunity and formulates a plan. He then shows up at Limun's agency/judo club offering Mirko's services in organizing his wedding party in return for Limun's personnel securing the gay parade. Limun reluctantly accepts, and, though Biserka returns to him, his club staff refuse to protect homosexuals, partly due to the likely reaction of their community. Seeing no other option, Limun decides to contact former wartime adversaries, most of them who engaged in petty smuggling across the borders during the Yugoslav wars. Limun and Radmilo embark on a recruiting trip all over ex-Yugoslavia.
They manage to sign up for their mission: Roko (45) a Croat war veteran who now runs a kafana, Halil (50) a Bosniak who owns a video rental parlour, and Azem (45) an Albanian from Kosovo who makes a living by selling drugs stolen via homing birds, mostly to the US troops stationed there.
When Limun's attempt to train the gay activists in martial arts fails, the skinheads refuse to be bought off and the police decline a bribe to protect the parade, the tiny group is attacked and brutalized, with Mirko getting killed before the police makes an intervention. However, thanks to this courage and effort, the film ends by celebrating a successful parade the following year protected by several thousand cops.