Cooperation on the project with Mayor Milan Bandic and Zagreb Tourist Board director Martina Bienenfeld was agreed earlier this week by the Croatian MP for the Czech and Slovak minorities and member of the Croatian-Czech Society Vladimir Bilek and Society president Marijan Lipovac.
The documentary will promote Zagreb not just in the Czech Republic but also worldwide as Menzel is not only the foremost figure of Czech cinema but a world-famous director as well, Lipovac told reporters.
Menzel has already done two documentaries about Croatia, "Our Sea, Your Sea" and "My Dubrovnik", and the director is expected to spend two weeks in Zagreb, he said, adding that Menzel had lived in Zagreb for two years, directing eight stage productions, and that he claimed Croatia was his favourite country after the Czech Republic.
About 780,000 Czech tourists visit Croatia but only a few come to Zagreb and one of the goals of the documentary is to attract more, Lipovac said. "Next year the Czech celebrate 100 years of the establishment of Czechoslovakia, which means that it will be 100 years that Croats and the Czech don't live in the same state."
Bienenfeld said the Czech ranked only 30th in arrivals and nights in Zagreb. In the first nine months of this year, they generated 8,500 arrivals and 14,000 nights and the documentary is expected to increase the numbers in the future, she added.