Poetry in Images and Words 

Poetry in Images and Words 

An evening of film & poetry, 60’, in Slovene and Italian

A program of short films inspired by the poetry of the author whose name appears next to the title. The films were made by young filmmakers under the tutelage of directors Paolo Comuzzi, Jan Cvitkovič, and Maja Prettner as part of the project ‘The Poetry of Dialects and the Landscape of Images.’ The screening will be accompanied by a reading of poetry by Maurizio Benedetti and others. 

Poetry is at the heart of a small selection of short films created as part of the project ‘The Poetry of Dialects and the Landscape of Images,’ organized by the Otok Institute and the Stazioni_Postaje aps association as part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture GO!2025. The short films were made by young filmmakers, high school students from the Italian-Slovenian border region, under the tutelage of experienced directors Paolo Comuzzi, Jan Cvitkovič, and Maja Prettner at workshops held at the Anton Ukmar Primary School in Koper, the Gian Rinaldo Carli Secondary School in Koper, the Tolmin Secondary School, and the Max Fabiani Secondary School in Gorizia. Shot in Izola, Koper, Tolmin, and Slavia Friulana, the selected films are based on poetry, translated by seniors in nursing homes into the diverse dialects of the border region, that speaks of the landscapes of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia. In addition to the screening, the evening will feature a reading of poetry by Maurizio Benedetti, who has dedicated various poems to Izola. He will be accompanied by Antonella Bukovaz, also a renowned poet and, on this occasion, the translator of Benedetti’s poems into Slovenian.  

Dal porto di Izola / Iz izolskega pristanišča / From the Port of Isola – Maurizio Benedetti
El Color Griso / Siva barva / The Colour Grey – Dorina Beržan 
San Martino di Carso / Martinščina – Giuseppe Ungaretti
Pod mostom / Sotto il ponte / Under the Bridge – Ana Pepelnik
Samota / Solitudine / Loneliness – Lili Novy

Maurizio Benedetti was born in Bern, Switzerland, and lives in the Friulian village of Ara Grande. With the Gorizia-based publisher Sottomondo, he published a short poetry collection titled ‘Lontano da chi ascolta’ in 2006, and a booklet titled ‘So distruggere il mio dio’ in 2008. Subsequently, his collections ‘Bionda salamandra e altre poesie’, ‘Davanti ai Visigoti’, and ‘Fiori rossi dal treno’ were published by the Udine-based publisher Kappa Vu. Benedetti was a member of the editorial board of the journal ‘Corrispondenze & Lingue Poetiche’, published by Kappa Vu, and regularly participates in public readings of his work. He is the artistic director of the PoetARE poetry festival, which has been held in Tricesimo since 2008. In 2009, he won the poetry slam in Trieste and has since received numerous national and international awards for his work.   

In collaboration with Cinema Istria. With support from the Italian Cultural Institute.