Co-written and narrated by Koki, the 67 year old speaking cockatoo of Tito, leader of Yugoslavia for 35 years, Koki, Ciao is a short experimental documentary and autobiography, featuring a non-human animal as its central creative figure.
Koki was part of the diplomacy and entertainment routine on the Brijuni islands, Tito’s late residence and a key location during the Non-Aligned Movement. The Koki show still continues where he’s caged on public display for tourists. Featuring recordings made with Koki over four years and previously unseen footage and images from state archives, the film weaves together fragments of Koki’s life on Brijuni Island during state visits from political figures, such as Nikita Khrushchev, Sukarno, the Ceaușescus and Indira Gandhi, as well as celebrities such as Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti.
Brijuni remains the location of animals who arrived as diplomatic gifts and state-defining symbols, a disorientating place of border crossings between species and states. Among elephants and zebras, Koki still steals the show, performing memories of his former high life from a cage.
