Livio Morosin and 150 Singers of Pula Choirs to Open Pula Film Festival, The Wedding Anticipating Its 800,000th Viewer
Livio Morosin and 150 Singers of Pula Choirs to Open Pula Film Festival, The Wedding Anticipating Its 800,000th Viewer
The 73rd Pula Film Festival will open on Thursday, 9 July, at the Pula Arena, with a big music spectacle by Livio Morosin, winner of Sanremo Junior Zoe Šestan, and as many as 150 singers from Pula choirs. The audience is also in for a special surprise – the granting of a prize for the record 800,000th viewer of the Croatian blockbuster The Wedding, which will also open this year’s edition of the Festival
“The opening is marked by the voices of all of the people who participate in a city, and we have, therefore, decided to have a short, but dignified dedication to our choirs. The opening ceremony will be directed by Kristina Grubiša, while the idea of including choirs came from Sandra Petrović Disphalli, and we would probably not be able to make it happen without Edi Cukerić. All I can say is that I am really looking forward to seeing Livio at the Arena, and his song More dimboko. This popular song has won the audience long ago, and we believe it will now be sung in unison by the full Arena. So come to the opening ceremony and let us open this year’s Festival together,” said Vlatka Kolarević, director of the Public Institution Pula Film Festival, to invite the audience to the opening of the Festival.
Kristina Grubiša, director of the opening ceremony, has imagined a ceremony with the poetry of Istrian writer Daniel Načinović. Three Pula actors – Luka Mihovilović, Nika Ivančić and Lara Živolić will perform three of his poems on ancient Pula from the collection Uvojci zlatnog runa. The recitals will be accompanied by Rocco Vlačić, student at the Ivan Matetić-Ronjgov Music School from Pula, on the traditional Istrian instrument mih. Fourteen-year-old Pula singer Zoe Šetan, who won the Sanremo Junior two years ago, will sing the Croatian anthem Lijepa naša domovino, and the festive Istrian song Krasna zemljo, accompanied by Istrian musician Bruno Krajcar on piano. The ceremony will end with the performance of the legendary Istrian musician Livio Morasin, who will sing the song More dimboko, nebo visoko at the Arena accompanied by keyboardist Anica Franjur and young Pula musicians Vasja Šumonja, Toni Drandić, Masimo Lazarić, and Gabrijel Radović. More dimboko is one of Morasin’s most popular songs that many consider to be a modern Istrian classic. The performance is designed as a flash mob of choirs, where more than 150 singers from different Pula choirs will join the musicians.
The opening ceremony will start at 9:15 p.m. at the Arena, and will be hosted by TV presenter Martina Validžić and film critic Boško Picula. The gathering outside the Arena will start before that, with the red carpet, hosted by director Igor Šeregi and the crew of the film The Wedding, led by actors Dragan Bjelogrlić and Rene Bitorajac. The Wedding is a Croatian blockbuster produced by the production company Eclectica and distributed by Duplicato Media (Blitz Group), and the screening at the Arena will mean that the film will exceed the number of 800,000 viewers in Croatia and further solidify its position of the most watched Croatian film. The 800,000th viewer of The Wedding will also receive a prize at the Arena. The film was seen by 799,080 people in Croatian cinemas so far, and the Arena will undoubtedly be full at the screening next Thursday.
“We wanted to celebrate our audience in various ways this year, because what is a festival without its audience? We will therefore open the Festival with the most watched Croatian film The Wedding, and close it with until recently the most watched Croatian film How the War Started on My Island, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year,” concluded Vlatka Kolarević.
Ticket sales for the opening ceremony and the film evenings at the Arena have started online and is seeing even better results than in previous years. Get your tickets for films at the most beautiful cinema under the stars on time. From Saturday, 4 July from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., ticket sales start at the Pula Film Festival Info Point at Giardini; and from 8 July from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. outside the Arena.
Photographs for media use are available at: 73. PULA MEDIA POOL
