La Parade

The fight for gay rights in Serbia might not seem like a natural subject for comedy, but the tone of ‘Parada’ is set in the opening scene: heavyweight Lemon holding a gun to the head of a veterinarian to get speedy treatment for his adored pit bull terrier. Welcome to Serbia…

To pay for his marriage to Perle, a bimbo from the East, walking cliché and confirmed nationalist Lemon finds himself obliged to perform security services for militant gays in the run-up to the first Gay Pride march in Belgrade. They're being threatened by furious baseball-bat-wielding skinheads, and it’s no great surprise when Lemon, a habitual homophobe, reveals his good side and discovers that it’s love that counts, not orientation. It’s a little predictable, but well-paced, sweet and funny. The problem is more the facile juxtaposition of angry Serbian nationalists with loving progressive types, in a way that seems intended to make the film attractive to European distributors rather than providing any real socio-political engagement. With that said, this is a light, entertaining piece of cinema.