21/12/2012 - The new film by one of Croatia’s most profitable directors Vinko Brešan hits theatres on January 3

Croatian director Vinko Brešan’s new film The Priests Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vinko Bresan
film profile]will roll out in the country’s theatres on January 3 through distributor Continental Film. Brešan’s megahit Marshall from 2000 is the second-highest local grosser ever, with more than 100,000 admissions.

Based on the theatre play by hyper-productive screenwriter and composer Mate Matišić (who also wrote scripts for Brešan’s Will Not End Here which won the FIPRESCI award in Karlovy Vary in 2009, as well as this year’s Flower Square by Krsto Papić), the film tells the story of a dedicated Catholic priest called Fabijan (Krešimir Mikić, from Vegetarian Cannibal [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) who gets appointed to a church on a small island. Worried with the decline of natality in his country and in the spirit of his religion, with help from two locals, kiosk clerk (Nikša Butijer, from The Blacks) and pharmacist (Dražen Kuhn, from Will Not End Here), he starts poking holes in all the condoms available on the island. This results in numerous births and weddings, which gets the attention of the head bishop who decides to visit the island.

Coincidentally, there is a heated debate currently in the Croatia, a predominantly Catholic country, about introducing health education into the school system.

"When I'm making a film, I do it according to my view of the world," says Brešan. "If the church found it crucial to tackle a comedy about a priest poking holes in condoms, that would really be absurd. But anything is possible in this country."

Budgeted at €1.2m and produced by Interfilm, which recently released Sonja and the Bull to great box office success, The Priest's Children also stars Jadranka Djokić and Marija Škaričić.