10/01/2025 - The festival dedicated to Central Eastern European cinema will have 130 films on offer, including titles by Peter Kerekes, Levan Akin, Sergei Loznitsa and Radu Jude

The Trieste Film Festival, the most prominent Italian event dedicated to Central Eastern European cinema, is returning from 16-24 January, boasting a 36th edition brimming with over 130 films. “The topic of family and family ties seems to be a cross-cutting leitmotif this year that unites so many of the movies in the line-up,” explains director Nicoletta Romeo. “Dysfunctional, queer, fluid and self-righteous families, family as a prison or as a refuge, and extended families. The family as an institution is being ridiculed […]. But sometimes, it’s also the only safe place in this crumbling society, and it’s always in the face of death that these bonds are strengthened and old grudges are set aside.”

The festival has planned a double opening: the first evening with Wishing on a Star [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Kerekes
film profile] (which was premiered in Orizzonti at Venice), the latest film by Slovakian-Hungarian auteur Peter Kerekes, about a Neapolitan astrologist called Luciana, will be followed by the Italian premiere of Dying [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matthias Glasner
film profile] by Matthias Glasner, a German comedy-drama first presented at the Berlinale (and soon to land in Italian theatres via Satine Film). Family relations are also at the heart of the closing title, Crossing [+see also:
film review
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interview: Levan Akin
film profile] by Levan Akin (soon to grace cinema screens in Italy courtesy of Lucky Red), which brings us an encounter with the queer world during a journey from Georgia to Turkey.

Out of competition, there will be the Italian premieres of The Invasion [+see also:
film review
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile] by Ukraine’s Sergei Loznitsa, which documents his country’s struggle against the Russian invasion, while the consequences of the war are portrayed in the intimate Under the Volcano [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damian Kocur
film profile] by Damian Kocur, Poland’s Oscar candidate. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Oscar candidate, meanwhile, is My Late Summer [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Danis Tanović. Crowned Best Film in Orizzonti at Venice, The New Year that Never Came [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bogdan Mureşanu
film profile] by Bogdan Mureşanu is a bittersweet comedy set on the brink of the 1989 revolution in Romania. On the other hand, Radu Jude’s documentary Eight Postcards from Utopia [+see also:
film review
interview: Radu Jude, Christian Ferenc…
film profile] taps into post-socialist Romania.

The Feature-film Competition boasts seven titles this year, beginning with the Locarno winner Toxic [+see also:
film review
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interview: Saulė Bliuvaitė
film profile] by Saulė Bliuvaitė. Also rocking up from Locarno is Lesson Learned [+see also:
film review
interview: Bálint Szimler
film profile] by Bálint Szimler, winner of the Leopard for Best Performance for Anna Mészöly and a Special Mention in the Cineasti del Presente competition. Three Kilometres to the End of the World [+see also:
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interview: Emanuel Pârvu
film profile] by Emanuel Pârvu, which was in competition at Cannes, is Romania’s Oscar candidate. Then we have The Shameless [+see also:
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interview: Konstantin Bojanov
film profile] by director of Bulgarian heritage Konstantin Bojanov, set in India and revolving around LGBTQ+ topics; Our Lovely Pig Slaughter [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adam Martinec
film profile], the feature debut by Adam Martinec, from the Czech Republic; and Family Therapy [+see also:
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interview: Sonja Prosenc
film profile] by Sonja Prosenc, the Slovenian Oscar candidate. Lastly, from Cannes’ ACID selection, there’s Kyuka - Before Summer’s End [+see also:
film review
interview: Kostis Charamountanis
film profile] by Greek helmer Kostis Charamountanis.

We find other notable names from European cinema in the Out of Competition Features strand: Slow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marija Kavtaradze
film profile] by Lithuania’s Marija Kavtaradze, winner of Best Director at Sundance; Eleven Tomorrows: Berlinale Meets Football, a movie split into in 11 short films made for the 2024 European Football Championship; Meat [+see also:
film review
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interview: Dimitris Nakos
film profile] by Greece’s Dimitris Nakos; and, from Venice’s Biennale College Cinema, My Birthday [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Christian Filippi, showing as a screening accessible to people with sensory disabilities.

The Documentary Competition includes ten titles about retrieving one’s memories and the relationship with the past. Among them are In Limbo [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Ukraine’s Alina Maksimenko, nominated for the European Film Awards in the Best Film and Best Documentary categories; Trains [+see also:
film review
interview: Maciej J Drygas
film profile] by Poland’s Maciej J Drygas, the winner of last year’s IDFA; Romania’s Alice On & Off [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabela Tent
film profile] by Isabela Tent, shot over the course of ten years; Termini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laila Pakalnina
film profile], the 15th movie by Latvian filmmaker Laila Pakalniņa; the Bosnian-Serbian co-production At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking [+see also:
film review
interview: Maja Novaković
film profile] by Maja Novaković; a work by Latvian duo Ivars Seleckis and Armands Začs, To Be Continued. Teenhood; Poland’s A Year in the Life of a Country [+see also:
interview: Tomasz Wolski
film profile] by Tomasz Wolski; Tata [+see also:
film review
interview: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile] by Romanian helmers Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc; The Sky Above Zenica by Denmark’s Nanna Frank Møller and Bosnia’s Zlatko Pranjić; and Lapilli [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paula Ďurinová
film profile], the feature debut by Slovakia’s Paula Ďurinová. There are five Out of Competition documentaries, two of which are strongly linked to the city of Trieste: C’era un comico di nome Cecchelin by Alessio Bozzer and Noi siamo gli errori che permettono la vostra intelligenza by Erika Rossi.

One of the novelties this year is the inauguration of the Queer Visions section, which comprises titles such as As I Was Looking Above I Could See Myself, a documentary by Kosovo’s Ilir Masanaj. The Corso Salani Award returns, featuring five works in its line-up, while, as previously reported on Cineuropa (see the news), the Wild Roses strand will this year be dedicated to modern women auteurs of Serbian cinema, a line-up curated by film director Stefan Ivančić.

(Translated from Italian)