73rd Pula Film Festival Opened: Sold Out Arena Welcomed the Start of the Largest Film Week in Croatia
The 73rd Pula Film Festival officially started with the opening ceremony at the packed Arena on Thursday evening. The evening was marked by great interest from the audience even before the opening ceremony, with the numerous crew of the film The Wedding, which opened the Festival, walking the red carpet. The long ovations at the full Arena for director Zrinko Ogresta, who recently passed away, marked the most touching moment
The cast and crew of The Wedding spent a long time with the audience, taking photos with numerous visitors who welcomed them outside the Arena, and after the opening ceremony, the screening of the film at the Arena marked a major milestone for Croatian cinema – more than 800 thousand viewers in Croatian cinemas watched the hit film. The 800,000th viewer watched the film at the Arena and received an invitation for the premiere of The Wedding 2 and a Pula Film Festival gift set.
The opening ceremony was hosted by Martina Validžić and Boško Picula, who welcomed everyone to the Arena, which has been preserving human stories for almost two thousand years, and continues to tell them through film art.
The opening ceremony started with the artistic programme inspired by the Pula Arena and Mediterranean heritage. Actress Nika Ivančić read the first part of the poetry cycle based on the poems by Daniel Načinović, with Rocco Vlačić on the traditional Istrian instrument mih, and animated visuals. Actor Luka Mihovilović read the poem Gradnja amfiteatra, accompanied by mih and animated visuals illustrating the mythical story of the origin of the Arena, symbolically tying its history to today’s filmmaking. Actress Lara Živolić read the poem Sreća je dok još ima noći, the final part of Daniel Načinović’s poetic triptych.
The Croatian anthem Lijepa naša domovino and the Istrian festive song Krasna zemljo were performed by Zoe Šestan, winner of Sanremo Junior, accompanied by the Zaro Choir and Bruno Krajcar on piano.
Following the Festival trailer, the films that will be screened in the coming days and competing in the categories Croatian Film and Minority Co-productions were presented, as well as the members of this year’s jury, who will decide on Golden Arena winners.
The director of Pula Film Festival, Vlatka Kolarović, welcomed the audience on behalf of the numerous team that worked on organising the Festival. “A few days ago, on this very stage, David Byrne made a nice point – in these uncertain and anxious times, love and kindness are the only punk, and Pula has always been a bit of a punk city, a city of rebellion and resistance, but also a tolerant, multicultural city of community. And this is also the purpose of the Festival, to have the films screened here ask questions, but really to teach us to coexist and look inside ourselves and our own universe, just like the slogan The Universe Within Us says,” said Kolarović.
“I would like to thank you for being here, for coming to see all of what Croatian film has to offer today, and everything my colleagues and I are doing. We often say that the Pula Arena is the most beautiful cinema in the world, and we mean it. It is not that it is beautiful because it is right here, in this building, but because it has this audience, because seeing the Arena as full as it is today, as it has been several times in these past four years, is the greatest reward for all of us who make films. Thank you for that, and thank you for being with us. Stay with us this whole week,” said Danijel Pek, artistic director of Pula Film Festival.
Mario Kozina, film programme selector, spoke about the films that will be screened during the Festival and said that in the Main Programme, as well as in the other programmes, we will be watching films offering different points of view of situations we share as human beings, of childhood, growing up, shaping our identity, weddings and funerals. And actually, through humour, drama, and sometimes distance or other times immersion, we learn more about ourselves, about the society and the world around us.
Kozina invited the audience to applaud director Zrinko Ogresta, who recently passed away. “Our colleague and friend Zrinko Ogresta has left us. Zrinko Ogresta was a pedagogue, a professor at the Academy, one of the filmmakers who stood for dignity in the audiovisual profession and community in Croatia, and also an author whose films marked decades of both this Festival and of Croatian cinema. Films like Red Dust, On the Other Side, and A Blue Flower that received awards on this stage, films that became part of Croatian film heritage, watched by people who came before us and those who will come after us. I would like to ask you all to stand up and say goodbye to Zrinko in the way he deserves, with a big applause,” said Kozina. The long ovations at the full Arena marked one of the most touching moments of the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony ended with an impressive performance of the song More dimboko, nebo visoko by Livio Morosin and the Pula band Freaktion. The choir flash mob created a special atmosphere appearing from the audience, who started singing along to the lyrics on the big screen. The ceremony was concluded with sparklers and the message The Universe Within Us on the big screen as the symbol of this year’s Festival.
The screening of The Wedding followed the opening ceremony and marked the start of the competition programme of the 73rd Pula Film Festival. Over the next seven days, Pula will welcome authors, film professionals, and audiences from Croatia and abroad, and bring an abundant programme of Croatian and international films, conversations with authors, professional meetings, and music events at several festival locations.
