The Master Butcher’s Singing Club is currently being filmed in Croatia and is the first foreign production using incentives for filming in regions of particular national interest.

With the new Audiovisual Works Law (NN 61/18), incentives for filming audiovisual works have increased from 20% to 25%, and in regions of particular national interest they have increased to 30%. With this positive shift, Croatia has answered market demands and increasing competition looking to attract foreign productions.

Major productions have shown increased interest with these new measures, and the first filming incentives of 30% will be utilised by The Master Butcher’s Singing Club project, a historical drama about German emigrants in North America.

The film’s team scouted locations in detail and managed to find everything they imagined in Croatia. They chose to film their first scenes in Kijevo.

The film crew, largely made up of Croatian film professionals, spending nearly three months shooting in our country, will visit many interesting (and in the film industry completely new) locations in Šibenik-Knin, Sisak-Moslavina and Zagreb counties. A whole American town from the last century was built in Odransko Polje for shooting purposes.

The film’s producer Lutz Weidlich said: ‘Ever since the introduction of the Production Incentive program, we have been returning to Croatia time and again. For this particular project, we were looking at several other countries across two continents. Ultimately, we decided on Croatia with its winning combination of spectacular locations excellent film professionals and well established production incentive scheme. The recently introduced 30% incentive for filming in underdeveloped areas enticed us to explore locations beyond well-known filming routes, and we were very fortunate to have found such pristine locations that form such an important part of our story, and which would have not been on our radar without this commendable financial enticement.‘

The film is directed by Ulrich Edel and stars Jonas Nay, Aylin Tezel, Leonie Benesch and Thorsten Merten. A total of 54 days will be spent filming in Croatia. Approximately 150 Croatian film professionals along with a number of trainees are working on the project, and a total of 620 extras will be engaged in the film. 

Cover photos: shooting scenes from The Master Butcher’s Singing Club
(*Credit: Photos by Silvia Zeitlinger, courtesy of MOOVIE GmbH)