01/06/2016 - With an excellent selection of films, and TorinoFilmLab and RE-ACT workshops, Izola is ready to host the film festival for the 12th time

The 12^th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival has just kicked off and will run until 5 June, turning the Slovenian coastal town of Izola into a welcoming venue for film conversations, stories and meetings, with an excellent selection of films and workshops once again.

This year, the festival is offering a line-up featuring films from all over the world, centring on the topic of migration (both geographical and intimate) and stories driven by movement itself, thus revealing the individual stories behind the anonymous masses. Among the films set to be screened in the Manzioli Open-Air Cinema section are the opening film, Fish Tail [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Portuguese directors Joaquim Pinto and Nuno Leonel, Yared Zeleke’s critically acclaimed Lamb [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the first Ethiopian film to be screened at Cannes, and Flotel Europa [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Vladimir Tomić, made from VHS footage showing the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and the wave of refugees from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina who reached Denmark. The festival also focuses on maintaining positive neighbourly relations through its Good Neighbour section, which will see a number of Italian, Austrian and Serbian greats crossing the border, including Peter Schreiner and his film Lampedusa, Marko Grba Singh’s Abdul & Hamza and Alina Marazzi’s We Want Roses Too [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Young filmmakers from the region are also given an opportunity to present their work in the festival’s Video on the Beach section.

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The festival will also feature educational workshops, in which 60 established film experts and filmmakers from all over the world will partner with the TorinoFilmLab (between 30 May and 5 June), one of the most recognisable platforms for the development of film projects in Europe, and the RE-ACT Fund. These workshops, featuring six teams (12 filmmakers and producers) from Slovenia, Italy and Croatia, will work on the development of new projects.