Srdjan Dragojevic’s Parada (The Parade), which tell the story of the lengths a gay couple, vet Radmilo (Milos Samolo) and designer boyfriend Mirko (Goran Jevtic), must go to in order to stay safe during the Parade march in Serbia, has won multiple awards at this year’s Berlinale.

Set amongst the history of the Balkans conflict the tragicomedy sees the ex-army hardball Lemon (Nikola Kojo), agreeing to protect gay activists after Radmilo saves his wounded dog and Mirko promises to organise his wedding to his fiancé Pearl (Hristina Popovic). After his usual contacts refuse to protect gays he sets about (in a Radmilo’s pink mini) recruiting his former Balkan war friends to protect the march against neo-Nazi and fascist homophobes.

The film, coproduced by: Mainframe Production, Sektor Film, Forum Film, Ljubljana, Film & Music Entertainment, PRVA Srpska Televizija, Film Studio Viba Film, RTV Slovenia has been a runaway success in the Balkans and now Western Europe’s audiences and critics have shown their appreciation too. It won three awards at this year’s festival - the Panorama Audience Award (voted for by the viewers), the Siegessäule readers award (voted for by readers of the Berlin magazine) and it gained a special mention from the Ecumenical Jury (for films which are particularly sensitive to spiritual, human or social values).

Dragojevic commented: "The audience, a fascinating mixture of Germans and ex-Yugoslavs, macho and sophisticated, gay and straight, young and old - got united by laughter and positive energy in the same way as these unite the audience in our region". The film sold to eleven countries in seven days during the festival.