Erasmus ends up changing your life in unexpected ways- For me, I didn't expect to go to Italy and find a best friend who'd been in Bristol all along. Being in Trieste with Elsa and working with her at the Film Festival felt like I’d won the Year Abroad lottery. Her presence in the office alone was like a ray of sunshine on the dreariest of winter mornings. She could make tackling even the trickiest translations a pleasure, with her renditions of noughties R&B and her knack for making you laugh so hard your stomach hurt. What would start out as midmorning cappuccino would always turn into evening pizza, simply because spending time with her was such an inexplicable joy. Fun really did follow Elsa wherever she went, as everyone around her were fortunate enough to have experienced. Only she could make a 7-hour train journey to Rome feel like an adventure in itself, even sorting out our own on-board aperitivo complete with crostini and Aperol Spritz so that we didn't have to miss out on our evening ritual!
Elsa was a person who sparkled, and there were so many things that people loved about her- Her brilliant sense of humour, her infectious laugh, her boundless devotion to the people she cared about. She was my Italian teacher, my dancing partner, my agony aunt all at once. She was the kind of friend that people are lucky to meet once in a lifetime- and I carry her friendship with me every day.
Sofia Lewis
"Elsa was one of the kindest, most caring people we knew, and always went out of her way to help everyone around her. She was a hard and enthusiastic worker, surely one of the most brilliant, dynamic, sociable, big-hearted collaborators we have ever had. We feel very lucky and blessed to have known her: we will keep her spirit alive with the many beautiful memories we hold close to our hearts."
Fabrizio Grosoli & Nicoletta Romeo
Artistic Directors - The Trieste Film Festival