Croats Are Coming is the name of a new ambitious beer commercial which was shot for four days with more than 200 people. “The filming of the commercial was really unbelievable. I do not think I have ever worked on such a highly professional project. We broke some new records here,” said actor Goran Bogdan. He is joined in the new commercial by two other well-known Croatian actors: Goran Navojec and Rene Bitorajac, reports 24sata.hr on January 23, 2019.
The commercial shows the arrival of Croats to what is today Croatia, which happened in the 7th century. The commercial was shot near Ivanić Grad, where a small settlement was constructed, and near Senj. More than 200 extras participated in the shooting which lasted for four days.
“I had to wake up at three o’clock in the morning to get everything ready. Still, we enjoyed it very much. The only problem was the sheep. There were about 200 of them, but whenever they needed to be filmed, we would try to push them into the shot, but they refused to act,” Bogdan joked.
The commercial shows the arrival of Croats. They stop at sea and love what they. The commercial then returns to the present day, with the three actors all alone on a beach with their beers, when suddenly they get surrounded by a bunch of tourists with holidaying equipment. The actors decide to stay there anyway.
“We filmed that part of the commercial in December, and the temperature was around zero. Fortunately, we did not have to swim in the sea,” said Bogdan.
The commercial also conveys a more profound message. “People are leaving Croatia en masse. While I was thinking about the script, I thought that we should show people how Croats came here. I was not initially sure since it is such a fringe topic, but the reactions have been good so far,” said Almir Okanović, who created the commercial.
In addition to being based on the historical facts, in order for the commercial to be as credible as possible, the crew also included linguists, since actors had to learn the Old Slavic language, which they use in the commercial.
“The script was great, so we enjoyed working together. It was hard, and there are three more sequels of the commercial coming soon,” said director Bruno Anković.
More news on Croatia’s beer industry can be found in the Business section.
Translated from 24sata.hr (reported by Davor Lugarić).
