Cinema “Cadmus Cineplex” in Budva, Photo: Vuk Lajović
By the end of the week, the municipality of Budva and the company “Lovćen film” will conclude a settlement agreement in front of a notary, by which the local government will take over the closed cinema “Cadmus cineplex” in the complex “TQ Plaza” for 1.7 million euros.
This was confirmed by the President of the Municipality for “Vijesti”. Nikola Jovanovic.
He stated that a notary was delegated by the Chamber of Notaries, and that the official handover was made between the contracting parties.
“The municipality has taken over the space and the keys of the bishop. As I announced earlier, I expect that the bishop will be in operation at the end of September, the beginning of October,” stressed Jovanović.
This puts an end to the ten-year agony during which the two parties filed 25 million euro lawsuits against each other.
The war between the two sides culminated in February 2023, when the cinema was locked, and the metropolis of tourism lost its cultural offer.
At the beginning of March, the municipal assembly, with the votes of the councilors of the informal coalition from the ranks of “Budva our city”, the European Union and the Democratic Party of Socialists, adopted a settlement agreement on mutual rights and obligations, which bury the “hatchets of war” between the Municipality, the Public Institution “Grad Teatar” and “Lovćen Filma”.
With this agreement, the two parties waive all previous and future legal proceedings, the value of which reaches 25 million euros.
By the agreement, the Municipality of Budva undertakes to pay “Lovćen film” 1.7 million euros, namely the amount of 1,385,000 euros in the name of compensation for the initial investment, the amount of 75,000 euros in the name of the costs of functional maintenance of the bishop and 255,000 euros based on lawsuits, and the two parties waive all further lawsuits and previous disputes.
Jovanović then, after the local parliament adopted the agreement, told “Vijesta” that with the implementation of the agreement, as Jovanović emphasized, the Municipality will cede the bishop to the management of JU “Grad Teatar”.
“We are expected to expand the activities of this public institution by amending the Statute and the possibility to realize numerous events in the space that is the property of the Municipality, and the equipment that we are taking ownership of, not only what concerns the film industry but also the organization of cultural events. I expect that before the end of the summer, they will have a cinema open”, said Jovanović to “Vijesta” after the parliamentary session.
In 2014, after the Municipal Assembly gave the green light, the municipality and “Lovćen film” concluded a basic contract, which gave “Lovćen film” free use of more than two thousand square meters of business space in the “TQ Plaza” complex, where the “Cadmus cineplex” cinema was inaugurated in May 2015, and the local government also committed to an annual subsidy of 199 thousand euros to “Lovćen film”.
In the contract, the municipality also undertook to lease about 1,500 square meters of office space and about 200 square meters of non-residential space in the “TQ Plaza” complex to “Lovćen Film” for 20 years, and to adapt the terrace for a summer cinema.
“Lovćen Film” was given ten billboards in the most attractive locations in the city to manage, which would be returned to the Municipality, i.e. to its company “Mediteran Reklame” for management.
The controversial project of the cinema “Cadmus Cineplex”, since the arrival of new political parties, after the DPS fell from power in Budva in 2016, has been a constant subject of accusations and numerous court cases.
Administration of the former president of the Municipality of Budva Dragan Krapović (Democrats) claimed that this project was the product of great corruption and that the Municipality and citizens were harmed in this business, while in “Lovćen film” they claimed that the Municipality could not have received a better project, and persistently called for all disputes to be resolved either in court or peacefully, but for the cinema to continue working.
When he sat down in the armchair of the first man of Budva Milo Bozovic the cinema was closed in February 2023, since then it has been under lock and key for the third year. During that time, the lawsuits only kept coming.
“Lovćen film” previously told “Vijesti” that they had been hunted for years and that the conclusion of the agreement “confirms that the project is legal and in favor of the citizens of Budva”.
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