Danish Royal Couple at the Croatian Premiere of Itsi Bitsi
The Danish royal couple, Queen Margarete II of Denmark and her husband, Prince Consort Henrik of Denmark, on Wednesday attended the Croatian premiere of the Danish-Croatian co-production Itsi Bitsi, written and directed by Ole Christian Madsen, held at Europa cinema and as part of Zagreb Film Festival. The premiere opened first with the short film Seven Boats by Danish director Hlynur Palmason.
The royal couple was greeted in front of Europa cinema by Zagreb Film Festival’s director Boris T. Matić, Head of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) Hrvoje Hribar, Head of the Danish Film Institute Henrik Bo Nielsen, and the director of Itsi Bitsi Ole Christian Madsen.
Prince Henrik of Denmark held a speech and expressed his pleasure to see the growing collaboration between Danish and Croatian film institutes in the recent years, saying that this is an opportunity for Danish and Croatian artists to work on joint productions and that despite national differences we all feel part of creative Europe.
Head of the Danish Film Institute Henrik Bo Nielsen said that Croatian-Danish co-productions were a good example of successful European cultural exchange and collaboration. Hrvoje Hribar, Head of HAVC, in his speech reminded of the connection between Croatia and Denmark that had started 18 years ago when a group of filmmakers at the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild had decided to established a film institution based on the Danish model.
Director of Zagreb Film Festival Boris T. Matić highlighted that this year’s ZFF placed a focus on Danish film, with four films in the main programme, two of which in competition.
Photographs: ZFF Press / Julien Duval and Filip Trezner
