Kino Otok kicks off on Wednesday; a surprise screening at Manzioli Square

We are eagerly counting down the final days until the start of the 22nd International Film Festival Kino Otok – Isola Cinema, which will once again transform Izola from June 10 to 14 into an open space where, alongside the art of film, there is ample room for reflection, dialogue, and new perspectives. The festival remains committed to auteur cinema in all its diversity, and this year, many of these perspectives have been taken up by young eyes—the non-nostalgic gaze of young people who see the world in the present tense. As has become tradition, a surprise screening at Manzioli Square will warm up the festival audience ahead of Wednesday’s official opening.

A poignant line from the enchanting pop song Young Eyes (Mlade oči) aptly lends its title to this year’s festival. Festival director Tanja Hladnik and program curator Varja Močnik use it to summarize the organic common thread running through the selection of films and related events: “This sharply fresh perspective characterizes the film program and its creators; it is the viewpoint of the young film programmers from Kino Otok, and, not least, it is the power of the festival’s rejuvenating team and visitors. We may not be able to change the world with films, but we firmly believe that young eyes are bright lights that turn long nights into mornings.” The song Young Eyes was originally performed by Ditka Haberl, with lyrics by Dušan Velkavrh and music by Jure Robežnik.

A look at this year’s film program

On Wednesday, we kick off the day at the Art Cinema Odeon, where at 4:00 p.m. the Spanish film Good Valley Stories (2025) will be screened. The film tells the story of Vallbona, an enclave on the outskirts of Barcelona bounded by a river, a railroad track, and a highway. As always, the official opening of the festival will take place at the unique Manzioli Open-Air Cinema at 9:00 p.m., when we’ll watch the premiere of the Angolan film My Semba (2026) in the company of director Hugo Salvaterra.

We’ll kick off Thursday’s program at 11:00 a.m. at the Art Cinema Odeon with a portrait of the great Italian poet titled Alda Merini: A Woman on Stage (2009/2021), followed by the first regional presentation of the Slovenian translation of the book Up Close, Nobody Is Normal, a collection of key texts by psychiatrist Franco Basaglia. Joining us will be Vito Flaker, author of the introductory remarks, and Trieste-based psychiatrist Ettore Jogan, a former colleague of Franco Basaglia. We will continue with the films Bambi By the River (2025) and My Friend Sely (2025), which will be presented by their authors, Maja Alibegović and Ester Ivakić. Thursday’s professional program will also be rich and varied. Representatives of five European festival networks will gather at the Manzioli Palace for a public roundtable discussion titled Inside Festival Networks: Imaginative Ways of Building Film Communities of the Future, where they will explore new collaborative approaches to film programming. During the masterclass Designing the Set – Shaping the View, French set designer Laurent Tesseyre will share insights from his extensive artistic body of work, including the film Les Misérables (1995), which we will watch beforehand at the Art Cinema Odeon. At the House of culture, we will pay tribute to the experimental artist Vasko Pregelj with a screening of Vasko Pregelj – The Constants of Vanishing, accompanied by a soundtrack by Tine Mulej Vrabič – Nitz. We’ll celebrate the Slovenian premiere of the second feature film by the acclaimed Trieste-based director Laura Samani, A Year of School (2025), under the stars at the Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema, in the company of its young protagonists.

On Friday, at the Art Cinema Odeon, we’ll join Thomas Zandegiacomo Del Bela from the Zebra Poetry Film Festival to watch a selection of the festival’s best short films, which focus on the intertwining of film and poetry. With the documentary My Armenian Phantoms (2025), we’ll travel to Armenia in the company of its director, Tamara Stepanyan. We’ll also be joined by Maria Luise Lehner, director of If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile (2025), a film exploring the bond between mother and child, as well as the connection between people in general. In collaboration with the Slovenian Cinematheque, the House of culture will screen Jean Eustache’s The Virgin of Pessac (1968), which explores the century-old tradition of the annual selection of the “most virtuous” girl in the village. The film Orphan (2025) tells the story of a boy named Andor who, following the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, is confronted with dark family secrets in an occupied country. At 6:00 p.m., we’ll wrap up Friday’s program at the House of culture with a cinematic portrait of projectionist Hussein Darbi in the Palestinian film Habibi Hussein (2025). At the Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema, in the company of filmmakers Aleksa Borković and Filip Grujić, we’ll watch the Slovenian premiere of the documentary Yugo Goes to America (2026), which explores the meaning of failure, identity, and collective memory through the lens of a legendary car.

On Saturday, the House of culture will host the Submarine program for young people and families: the screenings include the animated film Mary Anning (2025), Home Is the Ocean (2024), as well as the documentary Circusboy (2025). The program at the Art Cinema Odeon will feature two exceptional documentaries: Forget Me Not (2025), which will be presented by Anja Medved and Nadja Velušček. We will also be joined by Trieste-based director Alba Zari with her documentary White Lies (2025). In it, she embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about her childhood—shrouded in a fog of lies and silence—which she spent with her mother and grandmother in the Children of God cult in Thailand. At 9:00 p.m. at the Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema, visitors will watch the feature-length debut of Mexican director Pablo Pérez Lombardini, The Reserve (2024), about a forest ranger named Julia who discovers that a group of loggers is destroying the reserve through illegal logging. Philosopher and essayist Dr. Tomaž Grušovnik will introduce the film in a discussion.

This Sunday, as part of the Submarine program, we invite you to a screening of Lampie (2024), followed by a cinematic seaside stroll. At 1:00 p.m., a special historical program curated by young programmers will be screened: the cult film Daisies (1966) by Czech director Věra Chytilová and the legendary experimental short film Gratinated Brains of Pupilija Ferkverk (1970) by Karpo Godina, who will join us after the screening. Film enthusiasts at the Art Cinema Odeon will be able to travel between Armenia, Belarus, and the Venetian plains with the Armenian documentary In the Land of Arto (2025), the unique film White Snail (2025) about Masha, a model from Belarus, who unexpectedly finds herself drawn to Misha, a reclusive night-shift worker at a morgue, and the laid-back yet revealing road movie The Last One For The Road (2025).

As always, Video on the Beach will be with us every evening, inviting audiences to the Lighthouse Park on all five festival nights with compelling thematic blocks: Beyond Space, Spaceless, Changing Space, Distinctive Space and Unfixed Space.

And So Much More…

On Friday and Saturday, we invite you to High Noon: A meet and greet with festival guests at Largo pri Špini, where Friday will feature a film and poetry evening titled Poetry in Images and Words, and Saturday will feature a poetry event with the promising title Ding Dang Dong in collaboration with the Trite Institute.

Every day, visitors can enjoy the Library on the Beach (in collaboration with the Izola Public Library) in the shade of the Lighthouse Park. Those looking for a more active experience can join Yoga among Trees (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday). We invite creative minds to Crochething the Future with Kaja Pinter (Friday). As early as Wednesday, the Alga Gallery will host the opening of the exhibition The Poetry of Dialects and the Landscape of Images. On Thursday, we’ll gather at the Salsaverde Gallery for the exhibition The Silences of a Restless World II by students of the UNG School of Arts. On Friday, we invite you to the Drat Gallery for Kontrapunkt: a multimedia installation by the Format Art Society.

As always, the evening music program on the Lighthouse Beach will be lively. In collaboration with the KIŠD, the festival will feature, as part of the Night of Lights, the Yugo-futurist group Insan and DJ Nastynancy; the multifaceted quintet Bugaboo (live) from Trieste and DJ Zvèn; singer-songwriter Kiki and DJs Mima & Späti, and, as the highlight of Saturday, the coastal pop/rock trio Kavč and Jazza with a DJ set.