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Koki, Ciao

Quenton Miller
The Netherlands
11'

Co-written and narrated by Koki, the 67 year old speaking cockatoo of Yugoslavia’s former leader Tito, KOKI, CIAO features recordings made with the bird over four years and previously unseen images from state archives, including accounts of state visits from Nikita Khrushchev, Sukarno, the Ceaușescus and Gandhi, as well as celebrities like Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti.

From the exotic wildlife owned by former Yugoslav leader Tito, Koki, a yellow-crested cockatoo who has met both Fidel Castro and Sophia Loren, becomes a zoo exhibit, a star of the former socialist power in the Balkans. As much a curiosity as a living relic of Yugonostalgia, the parrot is trapped in an identity that doesn’t belong to him. His compulsive onomatopoeia, mere copies in the most basic of senses, are but a record of the past. Who knows what he’s hiding? Perhaps spicy details from the former communist leader’s life, perhaps state secrets. The only thing certain is that Koki remains one of the few beings who can eschew the shame that comes with the compulsive repetition of slogans from the past. (Emil Vasilache)

Wednesday, 24 September, 19:00

Cinemateca Eforie
Tickets

Quenton Miller

Quenton Miller is an Australian/UK filmmaker and artist based in the Netherlands since 2012. He studied at Van Eyck Academy and the Master of Artistic Research programme at KABK Den Haag, where his focus on film developed out of playfully disorientating video installations, as well as writing and designing for literary publications. He usually makes comedic work, depicting alienated characters struggling with language, truth, time and history. His work looks at diverse experiences of language and dislocating experiences of the world, often repurposing documentary and realism with frameworks and modes of address from literature, sci-fi and comedy.

  • Technical sheet
  • EDITING: Misho Antadze
  • SOUND DESIGN : Luka Barajević
  • NARRATOR & CO-AUTOR: Koki
  • FEATURED: Josip Broz Tito, Sophia Loren, Lanka (Indian elephant), Nikita Khrushchev, Sukarno, Jovanka Broz, Muammar Gaddafi, Indira Ghandi, Carlo Ponti, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu
  • ADDITIONAL WRITING: Koki, Quenton Miller, Misho Antadze
  • PHOTOGRAPHY: Quenton Miller
  • ARCHIVES: Museum of Yugoslavia, RTV Slovenia
  • PRODUCTION: When Site Lost the Plot, Amsterdam with Aram Lee

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Koki, Ciao

Quenton Miller | Duration 11'

Co-written and narrated by Koki, the 67 year old speaking cockatoo of Yugoslavia's former leader Tito, KOKI, CIAO features recordings made with the bird over four years and previously unseen images from state archives, including accounts of state visits from Nikita Khrushchev, Sukarno, the Ceaușescus and Gandhi, as well as celebrities like Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti.

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