The Trieste Film Festival welcomes you to its 34th edition, which is taking place between 21st and 28th January. Under the directorship of Nicoletta Romeo, the Festival is the leading Italian event dedicated to the cinema of Central and Eastern Europe. Since its creation in the years immediately preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall, it has continued to promote and popularise the cinema of countries and directors which are often unfamiliar – or even unknown – to Italian, and, in general, Western audiences.
“Our focus of attention includes a vast area, a real talent powerhouse which every year produces films that are daring, diverse, often innovative, at times imperfect, but full of vitality and courage” – explains the Director. “It’s a type of cinema that engages in a constant dialogue with reality, is able to analyse and transfigure it, making it universal. Our mission is to try to map as closely as possible the great variety of films produced: romantic stories and war movies, comedies and thrillers, militant documentaries and film-essays”.
The Festival will take place across three locations: Politeama Rossetti, Teatro Miela and Cinema Ambasciatori. And at its core it will feature the three international competitions – though the programming has much more to offer, with this edition being richer than ever.
Nine films make up the Feature Competition (the jury comprises Weronika Czołnowska, Beatrice Fiorentino and Stefan Ivančić), including Italian, European and international premières. Two of the most acclaimed films from Cannes’ Certain Regard deserve special mention: Metronom is a dream about love, music and freedom in 1972’s Bucharest, and earned Alexandru Belc best director at the Croisette; and Butterfly Vision by Ukrainian director Maksym Nakonečnyj, a story about imprisonment (set in the Donbass) to which not even liberation is able to put an end. From the hell of history to the two-family-purgatory of Anna Kazejak’s Fucking Bornholm – a caustic Polish comedy which shatters the idyll of the Danish island referred to in the title. The meaning of life, of love and of story-telling itself is at the centre of Beautiful Helen by George Ovashvili from Georgia – two souls in an on-the-road adventure to find oneself again. A totally invisible war is fought in the autobiographical Safe Place by Croatian director Juraj Lerotić, a multi-award-winning film at last year’s Locarno Film Festival. It’s the story of how an attempted suicide creates a rift in the daily life of a family. From the Berlinale 2022, where it won the best first feature award, Sun by Iraqi-Austrian director Kurdwin Ayub opens with three Viennese teenage girls wearing a hijab and twerking while singing pop music, thus going viral among the Muslim Kurds. Gentle by Hungarian directors László Csuja and Anna Eszter Nemes was presented at Sundance; the film immerses viewers in the world of women’s bodybuilding. Black Stone by Greek director Spiros Jacovides is an update on the mockumentary tradition, verging between black humour and social critique; while Wake Me by Slovenian director Marko Šantić uses young Rok’s memory loss as a mirror for the revisionism of an entire society.
Six other films not in competition include: from Italy, Alessandro Comodin’s Gigi la legge (The Adventures of Gigi the Law) and Andrea Magnani’s La lunga corsa (Jailbird); from Poland, Damian Kocur’s Bread and Salt; from the Czech Republic, Adam Koloman Rybanský’s Somewhere Over the Chemtrails; and from Slovakia, Victim by Michal Blaško.
A special mention goes to The Perfect Number by Krzysztof Zanussi. The Polish master is this year’s recipient of the Eastern Star Award, which recognises those cinema personalities who, with their careers, have built bridges between East and West (previous winners include Irène Jacob, Monica Bellucci, Milcho Manchevski, Rade Šerbedžija, Kasia Smutniak, Miki Manojlović, Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Weber). Zanussi has embodied this bridge due to his biographical background, with his family roots steeped in the heart of Friuli, as much as through his professional achievements. These have taken him from a “far country” (to mention one of his most famous films) to the very centre of cinematic, political and moral debates that speak to the whole continent, thanks to works such as The Illumination, Spiral, A Year of the Quiet Sun (Golden Lion at Venice in ‘84), Persona Non Grata.
Finally, four special events. First, the opening night at Politeama Rossetti featuring one of 2022’s most lavish productions, Il boemo by Petr Václav, about the life of the 18th century composer Josef Mysliveček, who competed with Mozart for the favours of Europe’s courts and theatres of the time (the film, co-produced by the Italian production company Dugong, begins in Trieste its tour across Italy’s main cities, and will be distributed by Cloud 9). Secondly, the new short directed by Laura Samani, L’estate sta finendo – Appunti su Furio (End of Summer – Notes on Furio); this is a touching and poetic love story realised by editing together beach scenes gathered from family footage shot on the local beaches and facilitated by the FVG regional Mediatheques system. Finally, The Happiest Man in the World by Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, that was acclaimed at Venice and will soon be released in Italy by Teodora Film; and Souvenir d’Italie by Giorgio Verdelli, a portrait of the great Lelio Luttazzi.
The Documentary Competition presents eleven titles (the jury comprises Rok Biček, Freddy Olsson and Julia Sinkevych). Blue/Red/Deport by Lithuanian director Lina Lužytė is a meta-filmic documentary that acts as a magnifying glass used to amplify the reality of the Moria refugee camp, in Greece. Deserters by Croatian director Damir Markovina, explores Mostar from past to present, including through the letters of young Bosnian men who chose to flee the war. Two reflections about the political value of theatre are presented by: Sisters in Longing by Latvian director Elita Kļaviņa – about a production of Čechov’s Three Sisters in a female prison; and The Hamlet Syndrome by Polish directors Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski, that explores how Shakespeare and the stage can be used to convey one’s grief. Fragile Memory by Ukrainian director Ihor Ivan’ko challenges the Alzheimer’s disease of grandfather Leonid Burlaka, who used to work in the ‘60s in Odessa’s legendary studios. Love Is Not an Orange by Moldovan director Otilia Babara deals with the fragility of family ties through the eyes of a generation of mothers and daughters forced to live apart. A Provincial Hospital by Bulgarian directors Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov and Zlatina Teneva is about a community that has been severely hit by Covid. The Visitors by Czech director Veronika Lišková follows Zdenka, the main character, to the most northerly town in the world, Longyearbyen, situated in the Svalbard Islands in Norway. The New Greatness Case by Anna Šišova chronicles the legal battle of a mother to prove her daughter’s innocence, who is detained in a Russian jail charged with attempting to overthrow the government. Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels is a foray by Mila Turajlić into the extraordinary archive materials by the leading Yugoslavian newsreel cameraman of Tito’s era. Scenes With My Father is a Croatian-Dutch production by Biserka Šuran – a symbolic journey through the memories of a father and daughter in former Yugoslavia.
There are six other documentaries not in competition: Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels, the second instalment of Mila Turajlić’s dyptic (see above); Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles by Dmytro Sucholytkyj-Sobčuk; Mariupolis 2 by Mantas Kvedaravičius, awarded best documentary at the EFA, the European Oscars; Un nemico invisibile (An Invisible Enemy) by Riccardo Campagna and Federico Savonitto; Trieste è bella di notte (Trieste Shines at Night) by Matteo Calore, Stefano Collizzolli and Andrea Segre, receiving its world première at the TSFF; and The Land by Ivars Seleckis.
The Short Film Competition presents seventeen titles grouped together in three compilations, plus some works not in competition, among which is Radu Jude’s latest work, The Potemkinists.
More sections include Off the Beaten… Screens, Wild Roses: Women Filmmakers in Europe and the Corso Salani Award.
“‘Off the Beaten… Screens’ – as Nicoletta Romeo explains – continues to pay attention to innovative filmmaking perspectives and forms, with a special spotlight this year on animation. Wild Roses, the section that focuses on a group of women filmmakers from a different country every year, is dedicated in 2023 to Ukraine, with a programme – curated by Massimo Tria – that had been in the making even before the current crisis. This is militant cinema, as it strenuously faces up to the tragic current situation; but it is also, and above all, feminist cinema, celebrating sisterhood, with female directors and main characters who are modern, emancipated, dreaming of a better future for themselves and their country. The Corso Salani Award, curated this year by Giuseppe Gariazzo and Grazia Paganelli, is dedicated to a filmmaker who was very dear to us. In his memory every year we try to create a section dedicated to Italian independent movies which are without distribution, with the purpose of increasing the visibility of works and directors which are often the lifeblood of Italian cinema, with styles and ways of working that are incredibly varied, and yet don’t often enjoy appropriate promotion or access to the right channels to reach a wider public”.
A special attention to European history has always been one of the Festival’s strengths. This year the focus is on the thirtieth anniversary of the “velvet divorce” which in 1993 determined the creation of the Czech and Slovak Republics. A special occasion that persuaded the TSFF to explore and explain the history of Czechoslovakia by appointing Francesco Pitassio to curate the retrospective Beyond the Boundaries – The Fringes of Czech and Slovak Cinema. This is a broad selection of movies that have been mapped against the history of a state made up of a multiplicity of different cultures and traditions. It spans different geographical areas, from the centrality of the great “studios” in Prague to the borders of the nation. An opportunity to watch great masters such as Gustav Machatý and Jan Švankmajer, as well as many lesser-known films, including some never previously shown in Italy.
On the 140th anniversary of his birth, the Festival intends to pay homage to Franz Kafka, with a double screening that is also a tribute to two directors who have recently passed away – Luigi Di Gianni and Jean-Marie Straub (and therefore also to Danièle Huillet), who made film adaptations of the first chapter of The Trial and of the unfinished novel Amerika, respectively. It’s tribute that is somehow linked to the above-mentioned retrospective, but also to Trieste itself, because of Kafka’s association with Generali – the renowned Triestine insurance company – where he was famously employed.
The complete list of films and sections can be found in the Festival’s Catalogue and Programme (accessible and downloadable from the official website). We cannot, however, fail to mention the other established prize, together with the Eastern Star, which the Trieste Film Festival awards every year: the Cinema Warrior Award, created to reward the tenacity, sacrifice and “madness” of those who work and fight for cinema – whether they be individuals, associations or festivals – behind the scenes. In 2023, in recognition of the thirty-five years since its first broadcast, the award goes to “Fuori Orario”. This late-night cult cinema programme on Rai3 has represented a “space of freedom” for many viewers, and succeeded at expanding the small screen, making the nights and dreams of generations of Italian viewers richer and more stimulating. “Fuori Orario” will dedicate two nights to the Trieste Film Festival, the 20th and 27th January, with a selection of films and directors that have been featured during these 34 editions.
When East Meets West – having reached this year its thirteenth edition – is organised by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund, together with the Trieste Film Festival, with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme, MIC – Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo, CEI (Central European Initiative), Film Center Serbia, Ciclic-Centre Val de Loir, Artevideo, Regione Autonoma del Friuli Venezia Giulia in collaboration with EAVE, IDM-Film Commission Sudtirol, Creative Europe Desks Italy, Catalunya, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Serbia.
The 2023 edition will be a four-day event dedicated to producers, commissioning editors, markets and regional funding bodies from Italy, Europe and beyond. Our aim is, as ever, to create an event that can generate close ties between the participating regions and countries. Cinema professionals from various countries meet through a series of roundtables, masterclasses and case studies, making WEMW a unique point of reference for producers who are looking to find collaborations to realise their projects. Numerous commissioning editors, distributors and representatives of funding bodies and markets will take part, so as to present the whole range of production and distribution opportunities, as well as financial resources, available to the industry. We are confident that the 2023 edition of WEMW will again prove very popular with industry insiders and consolidate what is an essential initiative for the development of audio-visual companies of the New Europe.
Moreover, WEMW is maintaining its commitment to exploring and researching specific production contexts in the East and the West, bringing to Trieste, for the first time, a special selection of projects from the geographical areas in focus this year: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Spain, Portugal and Latin America. The core of the event continues to be the co-production forum dedicated to documentaries and features in development, maintaining the same elements as in previous years, but adding some new and important features. Day after day you will discover new aspects which will make WEMW an opportunity for dialogue and discussion, to rethink the present and find new inspirations for the future, without losing that informal atmosphere and those playful aspects which have always characterised this event in Trieste.
The Trieste Film Festival and When East Meets West present the ninth edition of LAST STOP TRIESTE, a section dedicated to documentaries that are still in progress, i.e. rough cut projects that have previously been developed or presented at one of the other platforms participating in the scheme: Ex-Oriente Film Workshop, BDC Discoveries from the Balkan Documentary Center, Sarajevo’s Docu Rough Cut Boutique, Baltic Sea Docs, ZagrebDox PRO and When East Meets West. The documentaries that are selected will be seen in Trieste by an exclusive international audience of sales agents, festival programmers and TV commissioning editors, with the aim of being selected by the most important international film festivals and increase the likelihood of finding distribution.
Apart from presenting their projects and showing some scenes from them, the teams will take part in dedicated sessions with decision makers who will be in Trieste.
Moreover, one-to-one sessions with selected professionals who are interested in the projects will also be organised.
All projects compete for the HBO EUROPE award.
The Last Stop Trieste prizes are awarded by a panel of international cinema professionals.
When East Meets West and the Trieste Film Festival present the sixth edition of This is IT, a section entirely dedicated to work-in-progress fiction features and hybrid works with a strong visual and creative approach, produced or co-produced by Italian production companies (as majority or minority stakeholders) or by countries contained in this year’s WEMW selection: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Spain, Portugal and Latin America. The selected teams will be able to present their projects and show a section of their films to an exclusive panel of sales agents, festival programmers and international buyers.
Prizes are awarded by a panel of international cinema professionals.
Thanks to the continuing partnership with Milano Film Network (MFN), all the projects that have applied to “Atelier MFN” and ‘This is IT’ have been shared by both selection panels.
TSFF SIDEBAR EVENTS
Every year the Trieste Film Festival is complemented by a range of fringe events such as talks, exhibitions, round tables, and special initiatives. The extras this 34th edition of the Festival has to offer its viewers are as follows:
TALKS & MASTERCLASSES
Q&A WITH THE AUTHORS
Popular and traditional opportunity to meet the Festival’s authors and guests at Antico Caffè e Libreria San Marco Thursday 26, Friday 27 and Saturday 28 January from 11.00am.
MASTERCLASS 2023: ELMA TATARAGIĆ
Wednesday 25 January at 11.00am The Trieste Film Festival welcomes the screenwriter Elma Tataragić for a masterclass held at Teatro Miela. Tataragić has been a contributor of the Sarajevo Film Festival since its launch in 1995 and has written screenplays for films such as God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya by Teona Mitevska (the talk will be conducted in English).
UKRAINE: FROM MAIDAN TO THE PRESENT DAY
Sunday 22 January at 6.30pm At Teatro Miela, to coincide with the Wild Roses section, journalists Cecilia Sala and Anna Zafesova and author and journalist Yaryna Grusha Possamai meet the public to discuss present-day Ukraine, starting from the Maidan revolution. The talk will be moderated by Slavicist and cinema critic Massimo Tria, who curated the section Wild Roses: Women Filmmakers in Europe, dedicated this year to Ukraine.
LET’S GO! 2025
Monday 23 January at 10.00am At the Savoia Excelsior Palace representatives of past European Capitals of Culture will share best practice ideas. A round table dedicated to promoting the event Go! 2025 Nova Gorica/Gorizia European Capital of Culture 2025 – organised by Alpe Adria Cinema – Trieste Film Festival in collaboration with Assessorato alla Cultura FVG – Direzione Centrale Cultura e Sport, Servizio attività culturali.
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT: YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Ideas and inspiration for your audience development plan
Monday 23 January at 5.00pm At CEI – Central European Initiative – Via Genova 9, Trieste
Audience development has become a priority for the cultural industries, from film festivals to theatres, museums and galleries. Nicolò Gallio, a marketing and communications expert, will present an overview of audience development approaches and tools. Doris Bauer, co-director of Vienna Shorts Film Festival, and Pedro Relvas, marketing specialist at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, will present their audience development case studies and their best practice. This event is organised in collaboration with Media Desks Italy, Austria and Portugal (the event will be delivered in English).
EXHIBITIONS & MUSEUMS
EVERLASTING HOLIDAY
Photo Reportage from Ukraine by Oleksandr Rupeta
By Alpe Adria Cinema and Massimo Premuda
У нас все свято (Everlasting Holiday) is the title of a short story by Ukrainian author Vasyl Stefanyk, who worked in the first half of the 20th century, exploring the complex life of the Western Ukraine countryside. It was chosen for a series of images which the Ukrainian photographer took some years ago in the areas described by Stefanyk. The photographs on display in this exhibition were taken during various occasions and at different times, but they all come from Ukraine during the war that broke out in 2014. The photographs cover the country from the Western to the Eastern-most regions. “Historically, the East and West of the country were a bit different from each other”, says Rupeta, “but now the variety of portraits seems natural and uniform to me. Probably because in our country, even during the darkest of times, people are on an ‘everlasting holiday’.”
DoubleRoom arti visive – Via Canova 9, Trieste
12 January to 24 February
Monday to Friday, 5.00-7.30pm
(The exhibition will be open daily during the Festival)
DIVE, DIVNE, DIVINE
Actresses who crossed the borders
By Cizerouno
This exhibition by Massimiliano Schiozzi for Cizerouno turns the Cavò into a tribute to those Yugoslavian divas who managed to find fame in Italy. The lives and careers of these actresses are retraced through a collection of period photoshoots, scholarly cinema journals, popular photo-romances, celebrity or erotic magazines, articles on their latest fashion choices or on their love interests (illicit or not, as the case may be). This is a colourful journey into the lives of the ‘divne’ (wonderful) Sylva Koscina, Femi Benussi, Olga Bisera, Rajka Juri and Špela Rozin. Always knowing what to say and what not to say, they cleverly managed their image by appearing, for example, on location in Rome or in fake Viking villages built in a fjord along the Istrian coast, or retreating to the seclusion of their villas along the Appian Way.
Cavò – Via San Rocco, 1
19 January to 11 February
Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm-7.30pm
GAZES. ALIDA VALLI’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY
By Casa del Cinema di Trieste and Università Popolare di Trieste
On 3 December 2022, the “Casa del Cinema di Trieste” inaugurated its first exhibition. This has been produced in collaboration with Trieste’s “Università Popolare”, and, thanks to regional funding, it will be freely open to the public until 28 January 2023. The exhibition “Sguardi” (Gazes) is entirely dedicated to iconic actress Alida Valli, and is taking place in the hall of Casa del Cinema’s HQs and Teatro Miela, where numerous photographs portraying the Pula-born artist are displayed. The portraits, which originate from Carlo Montanaro’s archive, highlight Alida Valli’s beauty and photogenic quality, her austere and intense gaze, her expressive face, always surrounded by an aura of mystery. Stills from her movies retrace some key moments of her remarkable career. The exhibition invites the viewers to look closely at the artist, appreciate the depth of her eyes, wander between the folds of her soul, wonder at her natural reserve and her ability to reveal herself fully before the camera.
Casa del Cinema di Trieste and Teatro Miela – Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi
3 December to 28 January
Monday to Friday, 3.00-7.00pm
THE HOME MUSEUM OF OSIRIDE BROVEDANI
Through the life of one of the city’s benefactors – ‘Mr Fissan’ (after the name of a famous skin cream produced by his factory), this Home Museum allows visitors to understand the history of Trieste in the 20th century – a history that includes the deportation of the Jews to Nazi concentration camps as well as Osiride Brovedani’s business success.
The exhibition contains a great number of stories and – sometimes tragic – experiences, whose purpose is to raise fundamental questions about the identity of people, and broaden our knowledge with new stories and reflections. From a historical point of view this is a research and learning centre aimed at keeping the memory of the Shoah alive and relevant, contributing to the promotion of values such as equality, peace, tolerance and acceptance of diversity, against any form of racism and human discrimination.
Opening times
Tuesday 3.00-6.00pm / Thursday 10.00am-1:00pm
First and third Sundays each month, 10.00am-1.00pm
Free entry
BOOK PRESENTATIONS
Saturday 21 January at 6.00pm At Teatro Miela L’uomo che Raccontava il Basket by Sergio Tavčar, with Giovanni Marzini and Mauro Daltin (Bottega Errante Edizioni, 2022). Sergio Tavčar is a legend of sport journalism, and in this book, he focuses on an important component of Yugoslavian sport. By retracing the history of basketball, he also reveals the nature of a country, its borders, its relationship with Europe and its wars.
Thursday 26 January at 6.00pm At the Antico Caffè San Marco a presentation of Ponterosso Memorie, Il Libro edited by Wendy D’Ercole and Massimiliano Schiozzi – moderator Lisa Corva. From the letter A for “Avala”, a jeweller’s located in Via Roma in Trieste, to Z for “Zastava”, the Yugoslavian cars which filled the streets of Trieste, this is a small “dictionary of things past” that retraces a part of the city’s history between the ‘60s and ‘90s.
WALKING TOURS
THE WORLD IN A CITY
This walking tour will reveal the locations of spy movies and dramas that have been filmed in Trieste. This initiative has been promoted by the “Casa del Cinema di Trieste”.
The World in a City will bring back to life an eventful and unsettled era in the history of the city from the end of the Second World War to 1954. This proved the perfect environment for directors and writers to set stories about secret or double agents, international intrigues and the mounting tensions caused by the Cold War. Gianluca (Jazza) Guerra, a humanist with a passion for digital technologies, will lead us in this walking tour and discuss films that span a period of about twenty years, from the war movies produced at the end of the Second World War, to the B-spy-movies of the ‘60s.
Saturday 28 January at 10.30am Start from Casa del Cinema, Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3
Booking essential: prenotazionitsff@gmail.com
WOMEN AND WORK: WORKING CLASS TRIESTE – A WOMEN’S STORY
By Marzia Arzon
The itinerary focuses on Trieste’s working-class neighbourhood par excellence: San Giacomo. Paying special attention to the work of women in the history of Trieste – a city of factories and industry – the walking tour will reveal the history of women’s emancipation in the workplace, by looking at key industrial dynasties such as the Stocks, or the Salvadori Brothers, and other businesses such as the Pastificio Triestino (pasta makers), the Dreher beer factory, the Manifattura Tabacchi (cigarette factory), Beltrame (historic clothes store) and Salvador. This journey will look back at a manufacturing sector which, between the ‘60s and ‘70s, relied heavily on female labour. A forgotten and progressive phenomenon which made Trieste grow and whose design was to link the city centre with the outskirts, so that the newly built and more distant areas could feel closer to the Piazza dell’Unità, the symbolic centre of the city.
Sunday 22 January at 11.00am and Friday 27 January at 4.30pm Start from Campo San Giacomo.
Booking essential: prenotazionitsff@gmail.com
GENERALI’S ARCHIVE FOR THE TSFF
To coincide with the cinematic tribute to Franz Kafka on the 140th anniversary of his birth, the Generali Historical Archive is organising three guided tours to the display areas inside Palazzo Berlam, locally known as Trieste’s “Red Skyscraper”. The Generali Historical Archive, which has been recognised as cultural heritage by the Italian State, is an inexhaustible source of documents, photographs, pieces of the company’s history; many stories that deserve to be told are intertwined – among them is the life of Franz Kafka.
The handwritten documents, which will be viewable during the visit, are kept in the Archive’s personnel files and reveal unfamiliar facets in the story of this special employee, including his signature and CV, helping us discover the famous author.
The tour will last 45 minutes – 12 people maximum.
Thursday 26 January at 11.00am (in English) & at 4.00pm
Friday 27 January at 11.00am
Booking essential: prenotazionitsff@gmail.com
FOOD & MUSIC
PORTO MORTO
Live Concert
Saturday 21 January at 9.00pm – Hangar Teatri
Trieste Film Festival, Kino Šiška and Hangar Teatri present: Porto Morto.
This group, consisting of seven musicians from Zagreb, is considered one of the biggest musical surprises that the regional music scene has produced in recent years. The band, whose style is difficult to define, base their sound on a mixture of progressive pop, art rock, and indie electronics. Their performances are pure visual and theatrical expression.
Tickets available from www.vivaticket.com
CINEBRUNCH – UKRAINIAN SPECIALITIES
Sunday 22 January, from 12.00 to 2.30pm, the Antico Caffè San Marco offers a sweet and savoury brunch featuring some typical Ukrainian dishes – a unique opportunity to taste some of Eastern Europe’s delicacies.
DISCOVERING THE WINES OF JNK
Wine tasting at the Antico Caffè San Marco
Friday 27 at 6.30pm – Antico Caffè San Marco. “Finding a little snail will make you happy”, this idea sums up the philosophy of Kristina Mervič’s wine-making company – JNK, a small firm producing wines of great quality in Slovenia’s Vipava Valley. Eugenia Fenzi and Kristina Mervič will taste and discuss the four most important wines produced by the company to discover and appreciate the peculiarities of this terroir.
Enquiries and bookings: prenotazionitsff@gmail.com (NB: this event is not free of charge).
DIVE, DIVNE, DIVINE SLOW DISCO / TSFF PARTY
Friday 27 January at 10.00pm – Aqvedotto Caffè
DJ set by Jazza & Barbara Loden / by Cizerouno
The exhibition Dive, Divne, Divine becomes a “slow disco” evening with Beba, Sylva, Femi, Raika, Špela and the other Yugoslavian divas in a kaleidoscope of images and the soundtrack of the swinging ‘60s and the glittering ‘70s, with the voices of Marjana Deržaj, Majda Sepe, Elda Viler, Irena Kohont, Lidija Kodrič, Tereza Kesovija, Gabi Novak, Duo DD, and Ljupka Dimitrovska. These singers always had Italy in their hearts – so much so that they used to fight to secure the rights to the songs that stars such as Ornella Vanoni and Mina would sing at the famous annual Sanremo Italian Song Festival.
TSFF 34 LEAD-UP EVENT
As a prelude to the start of the Festival, the TSFF has the pleasure to present Thanos Anastopoulos’ FANTASMI IN VIAGGIO (GR – I, 2022, 101’ v.o. Italian, Greek, French and German – Italian subtitles) on Sunday 15 January at 6.00pm.
A director wants to make a documentary about Rìgas Feràios and the liberation movements in pre-revolutionary Greece to coincide with the bicentenary of the Greek Revolution. The director follows Rìgas’ footsteps in the Ottoman world and in Enlightenment Europe. After crossing Moldova, Walachia and Vienna, he ends up in Trieste, where he meets the descendants of the great Greek community. His research leads him to the Greek cemetery, their school, church and the palaces of the merchants. While our director is in the city, a group of Greek ghosts from history leave the cemetery and return to the city to visit places, characters and situations that were left unfinished in the past…
TSFF 34 EXTRA LEAD-UP EVENT
FUORI ORARIO COSE (MAI) VISTE – RAI 3
Legendary Rai3 programme “Fuori Orario” honours the Trieste Film Festival with the special selection EUROPA 2023 – L’ETERNO RITORNO – OMAGGIO AL TRIESTE FILM FESTIVAL (Europe 2023 – the Eternal Return – a Tribute to the Trieste Film Festival) and two typically idiosyncratic titles:
Friday 20 January (night)
Malmkrog by Cristi Puiu, 2020, 200’
Followed by directors Cristi Puiu and Thanos Anastopoulos in conversation (from TSFF32, 29 January 2021)
Friday 27 January (night)
Cosmos by Andrzej Żuławski, 2015, 103’
11 Minuti by Jerzy Skolimowski, 2015, 81’
Contro l’impegno, conversazione con Witold Gombrowicz, episode of the TV programme “L’Approdo”, 1971, RAI, 22’
Enciclopedia audiovisiva: Kafka by Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1992, 54’
Participating Countries
Albania – Armenia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Belgium – Bosnia-Herzegovina – Bulgaria – Canada – Croatia – Czech Republic – Denmark – Finland – France – Georgia – Germany – Greece – Hong Kong – Hungary – Israel – Italy – Kazakhstan – Latvia – Lithuania – Luxemburg – North Macedonia – Mexico – Moldova – Montenegro – Norway – Netherlands – Poland – Qatar – Romania – Serbia – Slovakia – Slovenia – Spain – Sweden – Switzerland – Turkey – Ukraine – United Arab Emirates – United Kingdom – United States of America.
The 34th Trieste Film Festival has been realised with
the contribution of Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, Creative Europe, Ministero della Cultura – Direzione generale Cinema e audiovisivo, Promoturismo FVG, Comune di Trieste, Fondazione CRTrieste
with the support of CEI – Central European Initiative, Fondazione Benefica Kathleen Foreman Casali, Fondazione Osiride Brovedani Onlus, Istituto Polacco di Roma, Fondazione Pietro Pittini, Centro Ceco di Milano, Comunità Greco Orientale di Trieste, Centro Nazionale di Cinema Georgiano – Tbilisi, Desk Media Europa Creativa Italia, Desk Media Europa Creativa Portogallo, Desk Media Europa Creativa Austria
with the collaboration of Archivio Storico Assicurazioni Generali, Associazione Casa del Cinema di Trieste, Associazione Corso Salani, Bottega Errante, Cineteca di Bologna, Cineteca di Milano, Cineteca Nazionale CSC, Cineuropa, Cizerouno – Trieste, Claimax, DoubleRoom arti visive – Trieste, Fondo per l’Audiovisivo del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission, Hangar Teatri, Kino Šiška, Milano Film Network, Midpoint – a training and networking platform for film & series development – Prague, Národní filmový archiv, Osservatorio Balcani, Caucaso e Transeuropa, PAG – progetto area giovani Comune di Trieste, Riviera IFF, Lo Scrittoio – Milano, Slovenský filmový ústav, SNCCI-Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani, Ukrainian Institute, When East Meets West.
Media partners: MYmovies, DAFilms-Doc Alliance Films, east european film bulletin, East Journal, FilmTV, FRED Film Radio, Il Piccolo, Meridiano 13, Quinlan, Taxi Drivers.
Technical partners: Art&grafica, B&B Hotel, Cafè Rossetti, Clear Channel, Hotel Continentale Trieste, DoubleTree by Hilton Trieste, Elita, Eventival, Forvm Boutique Hotel, Grand Hotel Duchi D’Aosta, Hotello, Ideando Pubblicità, InAsset Srl, The Modernist Hotel, Savoia Excelsior Palace, Hotel Solun Trieste, Tipografia Menini, Hotel Victoria.
Sponsors: Antico Caffè San Marco, Parovel, Piolo & Max
The Trieste Film Festival is a member of AFIC – Associazione Festival Italiani Cinema (Italian Film Festivals Association).
It is part of the MIOB European cinema festival network (Les Arcs Film Festival – France; Film Festival Cottbus – Germany; Crossing Europe Film Festival – Austria; Palić Film Festival – Serbia; Scanorama – Lithuania; Seville Film Festival – Spain; Trieste Film Festival – Italy).
It is part of AFIC’s “Green Festivals Workgroup” together with: Biografilm Festival, CinemAmbiente, Euganea Film Festival, Film Festival della Lessinia, Lucania Film Festival, Porretta Film Festival, Shorts International Film Festival, Siciliambiente, Trento Film Festival, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival.
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Established in the years immediately preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Trieste Film Festival is the leading Italian event dedicated to the cinema of Central and Eastern Europe. For over thirty years it has promoted the cinema of countries and directors which are often unfamiliar – or even unknown – to Italian, and, in general, Western audiences.