SYNOPSIS
This film reconstructs history through the narration of 'Koki,' the 66-year-old parrot once owned by Josip Broz Tito, former leader of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Co-written and voiced by Koki, this short documentary assembles archival footage, photographs, and audio recorded in her Brijuni Island zoo cage. From the parrot's perspective, it reframes leaders and their ceremonies with irony and distance. Blending humor and lyricism, the film explores memory, absurdity, and power's spectacle as Koki serves as both witness and relic, questioning human-centered historical narratives.
REVIEW
Koki, Ciao tells the story of Koki, the loquacious parrot once owned by former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. The film weaves together moments of Koki speaking with fragments of archival images from state visits by figures such as Khrushchev, Sukarno, Gandhi, and others. Animals have always lived alongside humans, playing vital roles in our lives. Koki stands as a living testament to the fact that animals are not merely companions, but active participants in human history—past, present, and future. Set against the monumental backdrop of the Non-Aligned Movement, Quenton Miller’s short film pairs Koki’s “narration” with previously unseen footage. In doing so, it extracts a deeply political meaning: even those who seem to be in the background—nonhuman and human alike—are in fact shaping the decisive moments of our world, and deserve to have their voices heard.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with stories told from the point of view of animals, Balthazar is my absolute favourite, but with words, even when great writers did it, like Virginia Woolf with Flush, it seemed like a ventriloquist trick. As a filmmaker who is drawn to literary storytelling, I wanted to tell a story with the real voice of an individual, speaking parrot. I tried it out with other parrots with limited success. Later when I was working on a different project about animal diplomacy, I met Koki and I knew I had my collaborator.
CONTACT
quenton.miller@gmail.com
