| PAGES FROM A WARM ISLAND : Izola Film Festival day one |
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| Friday, 27 May 2005 | |
 official site : KINO OTOKthe second Izola film festival Slovenia, 25th - 29th May 2005 Wednesday 25th May 16.26 Just arrived in Izola, a small fishing port on Slovenia's Adriatic coast not far from the Italian border. For the next five days it becomes "Kino Otok" ('Cinema Island' in Slovene) as host of a globe-spanning film-festival mainly concentrating on Asia, Africa and South America. The 'island' tag is a touch misleading - the town (pop. 11,000 or so) has been joined to the mainland for a couple of hundred years, though the hows and whys of this joining are too involved to explore here and now. First impression: it's a scenic enough little place (Lonely Planet guide to Slovenia describes it as "scruffy", but I haven't seen anything to support this view so far). It's pretty hot (24 degrees C) and sunny. I pick up my guest pass (featuring a digitalised, distorted, somewhat flattering old photo which bears little resemblance to my current self) and wait to be taken to my "accommodations" which are apparently a 20 minute walk away. Are they therefore still in Izola? Reviews will (fingers crossed and deo volante) be posted here as I see each film (I plan to see about 12 or 13 over the course of the event) but I'm not actually planning on taking in any films today. Tonight's European Cup Final in Istanbul (Liverpool v Berlusconi's AC Milan) taking precedence over world cinema (opening film is Chahine's Fate from Egypt which I hope to catch later in the week.) Apparently the festival head Vlado Skafar is also a football fan and may try to watch the game on TV in some seafront bar, so I'm unlikely to be on my own. AC Milan are favourites with the British bookies but I fancy Liverpool to score an upset - Carragher to be man of the match, just as he has been the reds' star player all season. Penalties are a distinct possibility. 20.27 My "accommodations" turn out to be about two miles from Izola centre, in a residential suburb named Jagodje. Nice digs, but about a 25 minute walk from the town, last section uphill. I make haste to the local cycle hire shop (why are these always on the outskirts??), rent a mountain-bike for five days at a not unreasonable price, which equates to 30-odd euros. The next priority is food: I settle for a mixed grill at an establishment not far from my accommodations named Beach Garden Grill. Parrot in the garden, (or maybe a cockateel) squawking out phrases which may or may not be Slovene. Stomach full, I scope out the town to see where I might be able to watch tonight's footy. The Wall pub near the marina (the only bar mentioned in Lonely Planet) seems like the most feasible option. I can attend the opening ceremony round the corner (and show my face to the festival top-brass) then escape to catch the second half ... by which time Liverpool will hopefully NOT be 0-3 down. I phone old-pal Slovene director Jan Cvitkovic (Bread and Milk) to see where in Izola he's going to watch the game, but he doesn't arrive till tomorrow. I discover that the opening film Fate by Youssef Chahine is being shown in the open air, in Arabic with Slovene subtitles. Not unreasonable given the fact that Izola is in Slovenia, but not a great deal of use to me, given my limited Slovene and even more limited Arabic... Coldplay's new single Speed of Sound seems to be on constant rotation on Slovene radio. Against my better instincts, I am growing to like it (I'm also gratified to hear that O-Zone's remarkable Dragostea din tei still hasn't gone out of fashion in these parts). Perhaps the heat is sapping my brain. Izola is not, so far, at all "scruffy". 23.45 With grim inevitability, Liverpool do indeed go 0-3 down by half time. But then - in one of the great football's greatest-ever comebacks - score three themselves in the second half, then hold on through extra time to a penalty shootout... Which they win 5-3. I watch the last twenty minutes of the first half in The Wall, which turns out to be a yuppy-ish pub near the quite fancy marina. On the way there I get a bit lost in Izola's ancient, twisty-streeted Old Town, and end up coming out at the Adriatic seafront. Big pink sunset on top of shimmery metallic tideless water: picturesque evening vista, though night does ring down surprisingly fast (dark by ten). Reckoning that my presence in The Wall is putting a hex on Liverpool, I decide to seek out an alternative venue for the second half. And find same in a slightly more down-at-heel bar nearer the middle of town called Okrepcevalnica "Center." Okrepcevalnica = bar/diner, I discover. Most of the locals cheering on Liverpool. I nurse a bottle of Zlatorog lager, then two orange juices (don't want to have to cycle home half cut in the dark...) Very tense finale. Texts flying back and forth between myeslf and various pals in UK - including one Liverpool fan to whom, after the battle is over, I text "Turkish delight or what" in reference to the Istanbul location of the match. And what of the Film Festival? At 8.45 I do show up at the opening ceremony, lots of white plastic seats set out in one of the Old Town's attractive little squares. Event is scheduled for 9pm. I sit waiting, wondering what's going on in the game, until at 9.15 realise that Izola's appealingly laid-back, beachy-surfy-hippyish vibe extends to punctuality. With no sign of the opening ceremony, I escape to The Wall. See above. Midnight is nearly upon us as I write this in the offices of festival newspaper Dnevni Otok ('Daily Island'.) Chahine's Fate presumably over or near to it. I'll amble back up to the headland waterfront ('la punta') to see what the nightly "party" is like, though won't be dancing till dawn unless something very strange transpires. Resolve to start seeing some actual pictures manana. Neil Young click here for Thursday's reports |
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