13/10/2010

The new Croatian children’s film Koko and the Ghosts started principal photography in Zagreb this week.

The film is directed by Daniel Kusan, son of the best-selling author Ivan Kusan, who co-wrote the script with the director from his novel of the same title. In it, 12-year old Koko moves with his family to the apartment of an old man whose death is shrouded in mystery. With the help of his new friends, Koko goes on to solve the enigma that may well include ghosts.

Koko and the Ghosts was the first Croatian project funded by the MEDIA Programme in 2007. It participated successfully at Cinekids market in Amsterdam and the Baltic Event in Tallinn. The project received financing from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and is co-produced by Kinorama and Croatian National Television. Principal photography should last until the end of November and the premiere is scheduled for the Pula Film Festival in July 2011.

Besides child actors Antonio Parac (who plays Koko), Nina Mileta, Kristian Bonacic, Filip Mayer and Ivan Maltaric, the cast includes experienced thesps such as Dijana Vidusin, Ozren Grabaric, Franjo Dijak, Predrag Vusovic, Olga Pakalovic, Almira Osmanovic and Rakan Rushaidat.

First published in 1958, Koko and the Ghosts was the first in the series of Kusan’s books about Koko. The boy’s adventures were household literature throughout the former Yugoslavia until the late 1980s and generations grew up with the charming character.

“In the last 20 years, only two children’s films have been produced in Croatia,” says Kinorama’s Ankica Juric-Tilic. “Our ambition is to change that with four more films based on novels about Koko in the next five years.”