Bring on The Parade: queer cinema, memories of war and transnationalism in Srđan Dragojević’s Parada (2011)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines Srđan Dragojević’s film The Parade (Parada), a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Monte Negro, Slovenia and the Council of Europe, analysing how it engages with both queer rights and nationalist memory narratives. The Parade was released in 2011, a year after an anti-gay riot led to more than 100 people being injured at Belgrade Pride. In spite of these events, Dragojević’s comedy-drama and its depiction of an unlikely friendship between a homophobic criminal and a gay veterinarian became a box-office hit both in Serbia and in neighbouring countries. This popularity is all the more interesting due to how the film depicts not only LGBTQI activism, but also the history of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the question of transnational solidarity. In doing so, The Parade is emblematic of other queer films produced in the region, with works such as the Croatian Fine Dead Girls and The Constitution, the Bosnian Go West and the Slovenian Guardian of the Frontier also thematising homophobic prejudice in conjunction with nationalism and memories of war. Drawing on this, this article examines how The Parade and other films in the region such as Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution address queer identity, memory and (trans)nationalism.