Zbanic receives $593,580 from Croatia for Love Island

After being rejected by the Cinema Fund of the Ministry of Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the controversial explanation that the script “promotes pedophilia,” Zbanic and production company Deblokada decided to move the project to Croatia. The Croatian producer of the film is Leon Lucev and his Produkcija Ziva, who also co-produced Zbanic’s On The Path which played in the competition of the 2010 Berlinale.

The producers also received $42,444 (€30,000) from MEDIA for project development. Budgeted at $3.5m (€2.5m), the film will be co-produced by potential German, French and Austrian partners. The negotations are currently under way. The Match Factory will handle international sales.

Written by Zbanic and famous Bosnian novelist Aleksandar Hemon, Love Island is a story about a Bosnian family on vacation in Croatia. Things get hilariously complicated when both the parents and their nine-year old daughter are enchanted by the same beautiful woman.

Stars of On The Path Zrinka Cvitesic and Ermin Bravo are attached to the project and the filming will take place in Sibenik, Croatia, in summer 2011 or spring 2012.

Meanwhile, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre has awarded two more international projects as minority co-productions. Peter Greenaway’s Goltzius, soon to start shooting in the territory, received $277,780 and Serbian director Srdan Golubovic’s Circles, currently filming in Bosnia, got $191,416.

The Croatian film body has split $4,893,103 between eight national feature film projects, including Vinko Bresan’s The Priest’s Children ($939,418), Silvije Petranovic’s The Adventures Of The Little Shoemaker ($900,247), Lukas Nola’s Be Quiet! ($880,969), Branko Schmidt’s Cannibal Vegetarian ($804,459) and omnibus Zagreb Stories 2: Love ($229,923).