21st Kino Otok Festival in Izola, June 4–8

Last week, we unveiled the program of the 21st International Film Festival Kino Otok – Isola Cinema at public presentations in Ljubljana and Izola. The festival’s main events will take place in Izola from June 4 to 8, with Kino Otok gatherings featuring film screenings and professional programs taking place before and after that period in various locations across Slovenia, most extensively in Ljubljana. So far, the 21st edition of the festival includes 129 films from 36 different countries – 45 feature-length and 84 short films – the majority of which will be screened in Izola. The full festival program is available at kinootok.org.

The common language of Kino Otok is the language of film

At the heart of Kino Otok are, of course, the films – but that means more than just screenings. It’s about lively exchanges of opinions on films and their themes among audiences and filmmakers. At Kino Otok, film is the shared language of different perspectives, fostering dialogue about creativity and the world beyond the screen. From June 4 to 8 in Izola, the festival will light up popular locations such as the Art Cinema Odeon, the Cultural Centre, and the JSKD Sunny Hall. Particularly appealing to the general public are Izola’s outdoor venues – Svetilnik park and Largo pri Špini, as well as the Manzioli and Arrigoni Open-Air Cinemas. The latter two will be the focus of the rest of this message, and for full program details, we recommend visiting the festival website. In case of bad weather, all screenings will move indoors.

The surprise screening – a traditional gift for the early birds among the festivalgoers – will take place at the Manzioli Open Air Cinema on Tuesday, June 3 at 9 PM. The film’s title will remain a secret until the screening, but we can assure you that this mystery film, true to the spirit of the island festival, will warm up the pre-festival evening and offer a welcoming invitation to the upcoming screenings.

On Wednesday, June 4 at 9 PM, we stay at the Manzioli Open-Air Cinema for the festival’s opening film, which captures the central theme of this year’s edition: Universal Language (Matthew Rankin, 2024). This film portrays a quirky, touching, and humorous encounter between Canadian and Iranian cultures and their respective cinemas. The director, Matthew Rankin, said: “I encourage viewers to think of the film as a cinematic Venn diagram between Winnipeg, Tehran, and Montreal. Like the confluence of rivers or Hawaiian pizza. These three elements reflect and refract through each other’s lens. Of course, Iranian cinema stems from a 1,000-year-old poetic tradition, while Canadian cinema was born out of 40 years of discount furniture commercials. But that’s the duality of our world, isn’t it?”

Four festival nights at Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema

Thursday, June 5 we will screen Fiume o morte! (2025), a widely acclaimed documentary by innovative director Igor Bezinović. The film playfully reconstructs the 1919–1920 period when the notorious writer, fascist, and political showman Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied the nearby city of Rijeka. Director Igor Bezinović, cinematographer Gregor Božič, and Slovenian co-producer Marina Gumzi will present the film in a discussion with young selectors.

Friday, June 6 at 9 PM we will present the Nepalese police thriller Pooja, Sir (Deepak Rauniyar, 2024), in which a police inspector investigates the abduction of boys in the tense border region between Nepal and India. The gripping film was inspired by real events during the 2015 ethnic protests in southern Nepal. Viki Grošelj – an esteemed expert on the region, mountaineer, guide, rescuer, educator, and writer – will introduce the film.

Saturday, June 7 at 9 PM – a special musical-cinematic experience awaits with Man of Aran (Robert J. Flaherty, 1934), accompanied by live music from composer and musician Polona Janežič. This work by one of the pioneers of documentary filmmaking is a vivid journey through a fishing village on the Irish Aran Islands, where the sea is both a lifeline and a relentless foe.

We also highlight the screening of Cast of Shadows (2025) by Finnish director and festival guest Sami van Ingen – a descendant of Flaherty. The film, which screens on Thursday, June 5 at the Art Cinema Odeon, sheds light on the crucial creative role of Frances Flaherty and their daughters, through revealing family archives, thus adding context to Saturday’s screening.

On Sunday, June 8 at 9 PM at Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema, the festival concludes with Vermiglio (Maura Delpero, 2024), presented as part of the new section Kino Istra – an extension of the Otok Institute’s program. Kino Istra tours the Istrian hinterland during the summer, exploring the multicultural richness of the region. Vermiglio, awarded at the Venice Film Festival, is a deeply cinematic story set in the Italian Alps near the end of WWII, where a romance between a local woman and a newcomer spins the fates of villagers in a remote mountain setting. The film is included in the program with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute.

Festival Passes, Tickets and Video Trailer

The full program is available at kinootok.org, and we invite you to download it as a PDF as well: link.

All ticket information can be found here. Advance sales for festival passes and discounted tickets are available at mojekarte.si, at physical mojekarte.si points of sale across Slovenia, and at Kinodvor. The festival box office at Art Cinema Odeon in Izola opens on June 3.

The official video trailer of this year’s festival was created by Serbian editor and director Dragan von Petrović, a long-time friend and collaborator of Kino Otok. The visual identity was again crafted by our excellent designer Urška Alič.

We wish you plenty of cinematic and social delights!