In the depths of January, when neither the waters of the Adriatic nor the footpaths of the Karst plateau seem particularly inviting, tens of thousands instead descend on the city’s cinemas in the ten day spectacle of the Trieste Film Festival.
In keeping with its Mitteleuropean heritage, the festival in Trieste is a showcase of central and eastern European films.
On opening night, a queue snakes out of the doors to the salmon-pink Sala Tripcovich (the largest cinema in the city, holding almost 1000 people), its constituents waiting to see the Italian premiere of Učitelka (The Teacher), a Czech film about a manipulative teacher with links to the Communist party, set in the 1980s. Later on in the week, the festival welcomed Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot to talk about the documentary Act and Punishment, which tells the story of the group from formation to their imprisonment and subsequent court case. Other guests included directors Marco Bellocchio and Vitalij Manskij, but perhaps the biggest draw was saved for the closing night, when Monica Bellucci was in attendance to promote her recent film, On the Milky Road, directed by twice Palme d’Or-winning Emir Kusturica. There were paparazzi following her from hotel to cinema, and her appearance marked one of the more surreal moments of the festival.
I worked as an intern for Alpe Adria Cinema, the festival organisers, in the buildup to the 27th edition of the festival, in 2016. Run by a small team in the Casa del Cinema, with windows facing the Adriatic, the atmosphere was never less than genial. I had little knowledge of the festival before I arrived at the office, but that speaks more to the obstinate insularity of British cinematic taste than anything else, as it has been running since the 80s and attracts some of the most important filmmakers east of the Rhine.
Trieste Film Festival
James Freeman