34. TRIESTE FILM FESTIVAL: DAY 6

Meetings with the authors, the competition, At The Margins, out-of-competition screenings, book presentations and the tour at the GENERALI’S HISTORICAL ARCHIVE on Thursday the 26th of January

The sixth day of the Trieste Film Festival will see the return of Q&A’s: MEETINGS WITH AUTHORS AND FESTIVAL GUESTS at the Antico Caffè san Marco from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Ihor Ivanko (filmmaker of Fragile Memory), Elita Kļaviņa (filmmaker of Sisters in Longing), Inna Sahakyan (filmmaker of Aurora’s Sunrise), László Csuja  (filmmaker of Gentle) and George Ovashvili (filmmaker of Beautiful Helen) will be there to meet press and audience.

Then from 2:00 p.m. at the Teatro Miela the day will be entirely dedicated to Czech and Slovak cinema with the retrospective Oltre i Bordi (Beyond the Boundaries), section divided into categories. Starting with Magia Quotidiana” (A Daily Magic), we will see HAPPY END by Oldřich Lipský CS, 1967, 69’, followed by 34 DNÍ ABSOLUTNÍHO KLIDU by Elo Havetta CS, 1964, 17’ (34 Days of Total Peace) and KOLEM DOKOLA by Elmar Klos CS, 1937, 7’ (Round and Round). The category “Restare Indietro” (Falling Behind) will start at 4:00 p.m. with the screenings of OBRAZY STARÉHO SVĚTA by Dušan Hanák CS, 1972, 64’ (Pictures of the Old World) and MŮJ PŘÍTEL FABIÁN by Jiří Weiss CS, 1953, 99’ (My Friend the Gipsy). At 7:00 p.m. we will move on with the category “Visitatori e Presenze” (Visitors and Presences), with PRAŽSKÉ BLUES by Giorgos Skalenakis CS, 1963, 75’ (Prague blues); RUKA by Jiří Trnka CS, 1965, 18’ (The Hand);  FOTOGRAFOVANIE OBYVATEL’OV DOMU by Dušan Trančík CS, 1968, 16’ (Photographing the House Dwellers). “Isolati” (Being Secluded) will be the last category at 9:00 p.m. with the screenings of HOLUBICE by František Vláčil CS, 1960, 73’ (The White Dove);  PŘIJEL K NÁM OLD SHATTERHAND by Dušan Hanák CS, 1966, 12’ (Old Shatterhand Came to See Us) and finally TICHÝ TÝDEN V DOME by Jan Švankmajer CS, 1969, 20’ (A Quiet Week in the House).

The Italian premiere of BAČENNJA  METELYKA by Maksym Nakonečnyj UA – CZ – HR – S , 2022, 107’ (Butterfly Vision) is scheduled at 2:00 p.m. at the Politeama Rossetti in the feature film competition. The theme of war in Ukraine returns under the spotlight, after the film premiered at the latest Cannes Film Festival in the “Un Certain Regard” competition. Freed in a prisoner exchange between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian army fighting, after spending months as a prisoner in Donbass, Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert Lilia returns home to her family. But the trauma of captivity continues to torment her and surface in dreamlike ways.

The second part of the short film competition, COMPILATION 2, is scheduled from 4:00 p.m. on, while the screening of ZBUDI ME by Marko Šantić  SLO – HR – SRB, 2022, 85’ (Wake Me) will take us back to the feature film competition starting at 6:00 p.m.

The Cinema Warrior Award Ceremony, that this year will go to the fantastic RAI Tre programme Fuori Orario, is scheduled at 8:00 p.m.

Afterwards we will continue with the feature film competition seeing SIGURNO MJESTO by Juraj Lerotić HR, 2022, 102’ (Safe Place), which won the awards for Best Emerging Director and Best Actor in the Filmmakers of the Present competition at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2022. A traumatic event creates a rift in the family’s everyday life. Their lives radically change, as if they are waging a war invisible to everyone else. The source of the story is autobiographical, the author/ director plays himself.

Starting at 10:00 p.m., the section Fuori dagli Sche(r)mi (Off the Beaten… Screens) will present BALIQLARA XÜTBƏ by Hilal Baydarov AZ – MEX – CH – TR, 2022, 90’ (Sermon to the Fish), the first episode of the war trilogy by the Azerbaijani filmmaker. Davud returns from war to find that everyone in his village has fallen victim to a strange illness. Davud is troubled by his memories as a soldier, as he confronts the only true question: is surviving the same as living? Baliqlara xütbə premiered in competition at the latest Locarno Film Festival.

At the CINEMA AMBASCIATORI we will see the out-of-competition feature film CHLEB I SÓL by Damian Kocur PL, 2022, 98’ (Bread and Salt) at 11:00 a.m. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in the “Orizzonti” section, and it is based on the true story of Tymek, a young pianist who returns to his hometown to spend the summer break with his family and friends. At the meeting point for local youth, a newlyopened neighbourhood kebab bar, Tymek witnesses the spiralling tensions between his friends and the Arab employees.

At 2:00 p.m. the Corso Salani Award will present CINQ HOMMES – UN JOURNAL INTIME AU-DELÀ DE LA SCÈNE by Cosimo Terlizzi CH – I, 2022, 62’ (Five Men – A diary beyond the stage). An actor films his colleagues with an amateur camera in the dressing rooms during a tours. An audiovisual diary bearing witness to the actor’s craft and its fragilities. The film premiered at the 2022 Torino Film Festival.

The Corso Salani Award will also present out of competition A SOFT HISS OF THIS WORLD by Federico Cammarata and Filippo Foscarini I – HR, 2022, 24’, film set in a city in the far East of Croatia, rebuilt after its destruction in 1991. On a peaceful spring morning, traffic flows as school children visit the city’s memorial sites. A silent presence passes over the city like lyrics of a melody carried by the wind. The film premiered at 2022 Doclisboa.

At 4:00 p.m. the documentary competition will present NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS  by Mila Turajlić SRB – F – HR – MNE – Q, 2022, 100’. The diptych Non-Aligned & CinéGuerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels is both an archive-based film and the story “behind the images” as narrated by Stevan Labudović, a Yugoslav newsreel cameraman who followed President Tito for over 25 years. The film examines how a global project of political emancipation was shaped by the cinematic image.

In the same competition the documentary BLUE / RED / DEPORT by Lina Lužytė  D, 2022, 82’ is scheduled at 6:00 p.m. One year into his life at Moria, the biggest refugee camp in Europe, burnt down in 2020, an Afghan filmmaker, Talib Shah Hossaini, makes a fictional film through which he explores his complex reality and indefinite future. Director Lina Lužytė observes Talib Shah, using the metafilm as a magnifying glass to amplify reality. The documentary premiered at Festival CPH:DOX in Copenhagen.

The subsequent documentary scheduled in the competition will be SYNDROM HAMLETA  by  Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosołowski PL – D, 2022, 85’ (The Hamlet Syndrome). A few months prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, five young men and women participate in a unique stage production that attempts to relate their war experiences to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. For each of them, the stage is a platform from which to express their grief and trauma through the famous question, “to be or not to be”. International premiere at Locarno.

Finally, at 10:00 p.m. we will see the out-of-competition documentary CINÉ-GUERRILLAS: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS by Mila Turajlić SRB – F, 2022, 94’. Non-Aligned & Ciné-Guerrillas is a documentary diptych made of unseen 35mm material filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Tito. Ciné-Guerrillas plunges us into the media battle that played out during the Algerian war for independence, where cinema was mobilized as a weapon of political struggle against colonialism.

We also remind you that the presentation of the book PONTEROSSO MEMORIE, il libro by Massimiliano Schiozzi and Wendy D’Ercole (Comunicarte Edizioni, 2023) will be at 6:00 p.m. at the Antico Caffè San Marco, with Lisa Corva as moderator.

Among the side activities, we would like to remind you that on Friday at Campo San Giacomo at 16:30 there is the start of the walk WOMEN AND WORK: THE BLUE-COLLAR TRIESTE A FEMININE HISTORY organised by the tour guide Marzia Arzon and that at the Antico Caffè San Marco at 18:30 there is the tasting DISCOVERING THE WINES OF JNK. Reservations are required for both events (prenotazionitsff@gmail.com).

The audience will also find the Photo-reportage from Ukraine by Oleksandr Rupeta DA NOI É SEMPRE FESTA (EVERLASTING HOLIDAY) at Double Room (Monday > Friday 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.), the exhibition SGUARDI. 100 ANNI DI ALIDA VALLI (GAZES. ALIDA VALLI’S 100th ANNIVERSARY) at Casa del Cinema e Teatro Miela (Monday > Friday 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) and the exhibition DIVE, DIVNE, DIVINE Actresses that have crossed borders by Cizerouno at the gallery Cavò (Tuesday > Saturday 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.).

In addition, it will be possible to book for the guided tour of GENERALI’S HISTORICAL ARCHIVE FOR TSFF of today (at 11:00 a.m. in English and at 4:00 p.m. in Italian) and Friday the 27th (11:00 a.m.) at Palazzo Berlam, by contacting  prenotazionitsff@gmail.com.