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EVENTS Croatia

First-ever Croatian film series kicking off in Rome

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Tomorrow, November 11, sees the start of Encounters with Croatian Cinema, the first showcase of contemporary and historical Croatian cinema in Italy. The free event runs four days at Rome’s Sala Trevi, the movie theatre of the Italian National Cinematheque, and was presented at a press conference today by Croatian Ambassador to Italy Tomislav Vidosevic and event director, audiovisual producer-organizer Tina Hajon.

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Vidosevic said he hopes the mini-festival will be the first of many such bilateral film events, given the signing of a co-production agreement between Croatia and Italy in 2007.

Encounters spans over 60 years of Croatian film history, dating back to 1944 title Lisinksi, the first Croatian talking picture. It offers some of the best-known Croatian films from the 1950s through the 1970s, such as Nikola Tanhofer’s H-8, Krsto Papic’s Handcuffs and Kresko Golik’s One Song a Day Takes Mischief Away.

Newer titles include Dalibor Matanic’s I Love You (2005) and Arsen Anton Ostojic’s A Wonderful Night in Split (2004), along with the short Yellow Moon and the documentary Flood by, respectively, Zvonimir Juric and Goran Devic, co-directors of critically acclaimed The Blacks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zvonimir Juric, Goran De…
film profile
]
.

Also screening is Branko Schmidt’s latest feature, Metastases (2009), written by award-winning writer-director Ognjen Svilicic (Armin [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), and Vinko Bresan’s 1996 film How the War Started on My Island, one of the biggest domestic commercial hits of all time.

Hajon – who grew up in the Croatian capital of Zagreb and studied cinema in Italy, where she has lived for nearly 15 years – conceived the event “to bring together the realities and resources of my two countries, which have given me so much and from which I have drawn extensively.”

Italian critic and film historian Francesco Crispino will moderate a panel discussion on Saturday evening with Devic, Sanja Ravlic (head of development, Croatian Audiovisual Centre), Carmen Lhotka (director, Croatian Cinemateque) and critic and film historian Sergio Grmek Germani.

For the full programme, please click here.

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