Saturday at Kino Otok with the Submarine children’s program

The penultimate day of Kino Otok opens its doors to young explorers, personal stories, and poetry. The weekend traditionally belongs to the Submarine program, which invites young people and families to cinematic adventures, creative workshops, and walks, while at the Art Cinema Odeon, the personal documentaries White Lies and Forget Me Not, accompanied by their filmmakers, will open up space for reflection on memory, identity, and the search for truth. The final evening at the Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema will offer a rare opportunity to watch the Mexican film The Reserve, a poignant story about a woman who stands up for her community and nature. And here’s an evening tip: at the poetry reading with the evocative title Ding Dang Dong, we invite visitors to let loose at the open mic.

Saturday’s Adventure: Submarine at the House of Culture, White Lies and Forget Me Not at the Art Cinema Odeon

On Saturday, June 13, at 10:00 a.m., we’ll kick off the local animated film series How It Grows… 3 (Ema Muc, Slovenia, 2026, 4+), and at 10:00 a.m. we’ll move to the House of Culture, where the animated film Mary Anning (Marcel Barelli, Switzerland, Belgium, 2025, 7+) will be screened. It is based on the true story of the inquisitive 12-year-old Mary Anning, who defied the norms of her time and later became one of the first female scientists. After the screening, young explorers, accompanied by experts, will embark on a film-and-archaeology walk. At 1:00 p.m., the documentary Home Is the Ocean (Livia Vonaesch, Switzerland, 2024) will follow, telling the story of a family with six children living on a sailboat; the filmmaker documented their life at sea for seven years. The film will be introduced before the screening by young programmers from Elvira Vatovec Prade Primary School, who also selected it for the program. At 4:00 p.m., we’ll wrap up Saturday’s Submarine program at the House of Culture with the documentary Circusboy (Julia Lemke, Anna Koch, Germany, 2025, 8+) about the true story of a boy named Santino who grows up in a lively traveling circus family; the screening will be followed by a juggling workshop.

Th Art Cinema Odeon is screening two personal documentaries, which will be presented by the filmmakers themselves. At 11:00 a.m., the program features Anja Medved’s film Forget Me Not (Slovenia, 2025), which explores first-person childhood memories and features participants who reconstruct the landscape of memory in the border region of Gorizia. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker and Nadja Velušček. At 5:00 p.m., Trieste-based director Alba Zari will join us as a guest with her documentary White Lies (Italy, 2025). The filmmaker 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. We’ll gain insight into besieged Gaza—where people, faced with hunger, meager medical care, snipers, and bombs, persist in living their lives, seeking friendship, love, intimacy, and the pleasure of a cigarette—through the film Chronicles from the Siege (Abdallah Alkhatib, Algeria, France, Palestine, 2026, 98’), which will be screened at 2:00 p.m.

A unique opportunity to watch the Mexican film The Reserve

On Saturday, June 14, at 9:00 p.m., we will screen The Reserve (Mexico, 2024) at the Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema, the feature-length debut of Mexican director Pablo Pérez Lombardini, about Julia, a forest ranger who, like most residents of Monte Virgen, struggles to make a living picking coffee, but discovers that a group of loggers is destroying the reserve through illegal logging. Determined to stop them, she turns to the community for support, but they soon turn their backs on her. “The screenplay was written in parallel with numerous conversations with foresters, coffee growers, and experts on the region. Our goal was to find a story that the community could embrace as a reflection of their daily lives and the challenges they face now and may face in the future.” The film will be introduced by philosopher and essayist Dr. Tomaž Grušovnik, who explores environmental ethics in his work.

Video on the Beach IV: Distinctive Space and the Ding Dang Dong poetry evening at Largo pri Špini

In collaboration with the Trite Institute, a poetry evening with the promising title Ding Dang Dong will take place, where verses by local poets, accompanied by music and live illustrations, will wander down Ljubljanska Street and playfully invite visitors to share their words in an open-mic format.

At 9:00 p.m., screening of Video on the Beach IV: Distinctive Space will take place at the Lighthouse Park, exploring how stepping out of the crowd and taking a step in your own direction can be scary, but ultimately brings relief and the feeling that you’ve finally found your true self. The themed short film program will be accompanied by discussions with the filmmakers, and the following films will be screened: Everything I’ve Ever Wanted to Hear (Ema Paš, Slovenia, 2025, 21’59’’), The Girl Who Wasn’t Afraid of Bears (Lea Vučko, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, 2025, 20’), One Meter Is Six Centimeters (Juš Jeraj, Atila Urbančič, Slovenia, 2025, 11’26’’), Arachnophobia (Melita Sandrin, Slovenia, 2025, 2’49’’), Dog and Wolf (Terézia Halamová, Czech Republic, 2025, 20’), Stone of Destiny (Julie Černá, Czech Republic, 2025, 10’26’’), HYENA (Altay Ulan Yang, USA, China, 2025, 21’ ).

And So Much More… KIŠD x KO: Nights of Lights

The screenings will be followed by the Nights of Lights music program at the Lighthouse, which we bring to Kino Otok every evening until the early hours of the morning in collaboration withKIŠD. We’ll be warmed up by the coastal pop/rock trio Kavč, which has quickly established itself as one of the most prominent young bands on the local scene. Late into the night, we’ll sway to the rhythms of JAZZA, whose dark and evocative sets blend deep house, cutting-edge electronica, Italo disco, and new wave.