COMPETITION OPENING CEREMONY,
1945 RETROSPECTIVE, AND PANELS
The day begins at 9:30 AM at at the STARHOTEL SAVOIA EXCELSIOR PALACE with Let’s GO! 2025: Multilingual European Capitals of Culture. Tracing the Linguistic Diversity of ECoC
In anticipation of the upcoming celebrations for NOVA GORICA – GORIZIA, European Capital of Culture 2025, Alpe Adria Cinema has organized, for the third consecutive year, a roundtable discussion tied to the calendar of events, engaging with other European cities. This year’s focus is on bilingualism (or even multilingualism) and features representatives from the European Capitals of Culture: Sibiu, Plovdiv, Timișoara, Chemnitz, and Nova Gorica-Gorizia.
The bilingual (Italian/English) panel is aimed at representatives of local and institutional bodies across the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region and Slovenia, as well as cultural event organizers and the general public.
Simultaneous translation in Italian/English will be provided. Free entry.
At 2:00 PM, we present a series of films for the 1945 Retrospective. Is the war over? The MOVEMENTS chapter features the screenings of ARCHA NOEMOVA by Meyer Levin (Noah’s Ark, Czechoslovakia, 1946, b-w., 15’, Czech o.v.), a documentary film depicting the journey of eight hundred European Jews to Palestine in 1940. Racial intolerance fueled by fascism and war is likened to a flood, a ship carrying the Jews symbolizing Noah’s ark, a bridge to freedom. The film will be followed by WIELKA DROGA by Michał Waszyński (The Great Way, Poland – Italy, 1946, b-w., 90’, Polish – Russian – Italian o.v. ). The first post-war Polish feature film was made in Italy during the summer of 1946 at the Cinecittà studios. The film tells the story – through the fate of Adam and Irena, an engaged couple from Lviv separated by the war – of the long journey of Polish soldiers in General Władysław Anders’ army. The fictional love story becomes a pretext for the director to tell the story of the formation, march, and successes of the 2nd Polish Corps in the East.
At 4:30 PM, the RUINS chapter present the screenings of A DEFEATED PEOPLE by Humphrey Jennings (UK, 1946, b-w., 18’, English o.v.). Immediately after the end of the war, Germany lies in ruins, largely due to the Allies’ decision to focus on destroying communications (including bridges) in the last phase of the war. In their ruined towns, Germans scour notice boards for news about their relatives. Homelessness is rife and people are cooking in the open. German councillors meet with British officers in attempts to resolve the impending issue of starvation and disease. A documentary film about the management of the British-occupied zone of Germany at the end of World War II. This will be followed by GERMANIA ANNO ZERO by Roberto Rossellini (Germany Year Zero, Italy – Germany – France, 1948, b-w., 78’, German – English – French o.v.). “In 1947 I was in Paris, and I had the idea of asking the French government for permission to go to Berlin to make a film about Germany after the armistice: Germany Year Zero was to be the third film of the triptych on the war … I arrived in Berlin in March, by car; around five in the afternoon, at sunset … I entered a wide street; on the horizon, the only sign of life, a large yellow sign … ‘Bazar Israel’. The first Jews had returned to Berlin; it was the very symbol of the end of Nazism” (R. Rossellini, in L’avventurosa storia del cinema italiano, ed. by F. Faldini, G. Fofi, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1979)
At 6:30 PM, for the CHILDHOOD chapter, we will present SEEDS OF DESTINY by Gene Fowler Jr. (USA, 1946, b-w., 21’, English o.v.).
The film surveys the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Japanese, the devastation that followed World War II, and the initial relief efforts. It primarily highlights the struggle of children living in bombed-out cities, refugee camps, makeshift hospitals, and other locations immediately after the war ended. Seeds of Destiny won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 1947.
KINDER SUCHEN IHRE ELTERN (DER AUGENZEUGE 1946/12) (Children searching for their parents, Germany – Soviet Occupation Zone, 1946, b-w., 1’ 19” – German o.v.). Der Augenzeuge (The Eyewitness) was the newsreel produced during the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany and later in the German Democratic Republic. It was created by the state owned film company DEFA and had a runtime of 15 minutes. The newsreel aired from 19 February 1946 to 19 December 1980. In its 12th edition, a new segment titled “Kinder suchen ihre Eltern” (Children Searching for Their Parents) was introduced, lasting about one minute. This segment focused on helping children who had been separated from their families due to the war to reconnect with their parents. However, this segment was discontinued in 1949.
VALAHOL EURÓPÁBAN by Géza von Radványi (Somewhere in Europe, Hungary, 1947, b-w., 104’, Hungarian o.v.). End of the Second World War. Orphaned, starving, feral children roam the bombed streets, stealing and looting. They stumble across a ruined yet well-provisioned castle that at first sight appears uninhabited, but it does have a resident: Péter Simon, the famous conductor, disgusted by life. Gradually, step by step, some sense of fellowship, even friendship evolves between the children and the pure-hearted man. When the locals hear of their existence, Péter and the children join forces in defence of their new home. The film was presented at the Locarno Film Festival in 1948.
At 8:00 PM, the COMPETITION OPENING CEREMONY will take place at the Politeama Rossetti, along with the presentation of the SNCCI 2024 Best Film Award
Next, there will be a special screening in collaboration with the Cineteca del Friuli of THE PEARL OF THE RUINS by Giovanni Vitrotti (Italy, 1921, color, 26’) with a live piano accompaniment by Andrej Goričar. Unable to find honest work, Perl, a young girl, is forced to commit petty theft, until she decides to redeem herself by denouncing the crooks she is succumbing to. Made in 1921, this is the oldest fiction film shot in Trieste still visible today. The film was screened at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 2024.
The film will then be followed by the out-of-competition special screening of STERBEN by Matthias Glasner (Dying, DE, 2024, col., 180’). Dying follows the very individual members of the Lunies family, who haven’t been a family for a long time. Lissy is quietly happy about her demented husband Gerd slowly wasting away in a home. But her new freedom is short-lived: diabetes, cancer and kidney failure mean that she doesn’t have much time left either. Tom, the son, a conductor in his early 40s, is working on a composition called Dying, while at the same time being made the surrogate father of his ex-girlfriend’s child. And Tom’s sister, Ellen, starts an affair with the married Sebastian, with whom she shares a love for alcohol. As Death finally turns up on their doorstep, the estranged family members finally meet again. The film premiered at the Berlinale in 2024, winning the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.
RESERVATIONS-ONLY EVENTS / ADDITIONAL EVENTS
SPEED DATE ARTIFRAGILI X TSFF, at 6:00 PM, CAFÉ ROSSETTI
with Alejandro Bonn, Romina Colbasso, Veronica Dariol, and Davide Rossi.
A “cultural” speed date to meet new people, chat about the Trieste Film Festival, and watch a film together. The event is by reservation only, by emailing artifragili@gmail.com or via Instagram DM at @artifragili.
