It was shown for the first time at the 13th Sarajevo Film Festival in 2007. Chosen as the opening film at the 10th Festival of Slovenian Film, it won the audience award and the award for best direction and best story (both Marko Nabersnik), as well as the award for the best male role (Vlado Novak). Besides that Pia Zemljic received an award from Slovenian magazine Stop for the best leading female role.
The period just after the Festival of Slovenian film was the perfect time for the Slovenian release of the film (October 17, 2007). After 24 weeks on nine prints, the film had over 180,000 admissions in Slovenia and has taken in more than 700,000 euros. It was also the top-grossing Slovenian movie of all time and holds third place on the all-time Slovenian box office chart - after Titanic and Troy.
Rooster's Breakfast is a love story set in a small town in Slovenia. A young man called Djuro works as an apprentice for Gajas, the elderly owner of a garage. The quiet life of the young apprentice is disturbed by the arrival of a beautiful brunette, Bronja, who is married to Lepec, a local ruffian and pimp. Bronja and Djuro start a risky love affair that does not go unnoticed. Meanwhile, Gajas himself cherishes his romantic fantasies too. He dreams about Severina, a well-known pop singer, who is on tour and is coming to town. When he gets an opportunity to meet her, the hidden passions of the protagonists suddenly lead to dramatic events.
The script based on Feri Lainscek's bestselling novel of the same title was one of the reasons for success of the film. Besides that a very strong marketing campaign was conducted by distributor Ljubljanski Kinematografi (www.kolosej.si).
The film was produced by Franci Zajc (Arsmedia) and was shot in 36 days in the summer of 2006. Over half of the 1.3 million euro budget (one of the highest in Slovenian film) came from the Slovenian Film Fund, which participated (together with technical support from Viba) in the film with 1.1 million euros. The Slovenian national television station RTV (www.rtvslo.si) contributed 130,000 euros.
Following the success of the film, Nabersnik and writer Feri Lainscek are in talks about a new movie based on Lainscek's latest novel, The Untouchables: The Myth of the Gypsies, which traces the story of four generations of Balkan Roma. Rooster's Breakfast was also chosen as the Slovenian candidate for this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
CREDITS:
Rooster's Breakfast (www.petelinjizajtrk.com)
Production Company: Arsmedia (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Co-production Company: TV Slovenija (www.rtvslo.si), Jadran film - Zagreb (www.jadran-film.com)
Co-funding: Slovenian film fund (www.film-sklad.si)
Technical support: (www.vibafilm.si)
