Fourteen films, sold-out screenings, Šibenik premieres, award-winning Croatian titles, and meetings with filmmakers marked the eleventh season of the Barone Summer Cinema. The film summer at Barone Fortress concluded with a free screening of the restored classic Kaya, I'll Kill You! by Vatroslav Mimica, while after the summer break, the film programme of Fortress of Culture Šibenik returns to the House of Arts Arsen in October.
From contemporary Croatian hits and festival favourites to international titles and a local Šibenik film that waited a full 25 years for its first public screening, this year's Barone Summer Cinema offered 14 different reasons to enjoy open-air movie nights.
The season opened with Being Related to John Malkovich, and the very first evening set the tone for the entire summer: at Barone, the experience does not end when the closing credits roll. After the screening, director Luka Mavretić joined a discussion moderated by Šibenik filmmaker Ana Marija Marinov, launching a series of audience encounters with filmmakers and film crews.
One of the highlights of the season was the highly anticipated and sold-out Šibenik premiere of Koke, one of the most acclaimed Croatian films of the year and winner of four Golden Arena awards. Following the screening, the audience had the opportunity to meet members of the film's cast and creative team. Their strong interest in this story of two sisters and their inheritance was reason enough for Koke to return to Barone's big screen in early September, where it once again played to a sold-out crowd.
A special place in this year's programme was reserved for Šibenik itself, its people, its streets, and a generation whose youth was preserved on film.
Ante Deković's Armageddon, shot 25 years ago, finally received its first public screening, fittingly in front of a hometown audience. The camera of the then 18-year-old Deković captured the atmosphere of an era when everyday life could not yet be recorded, published, and shared with a single click. What began, as its protagonists explained after the screening, as a playful project among friends, has proved a quarter of a century later to be a valuable and authentic record of a particular moment in Šibenik's history.
That a good film story does not always follow a planned route was demonstrated by Yugo Goes to America. The screening ended with enthusiastic applause, after which directors Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković joined political scientist and film critic Boško Picula in a conversation about the spontaneity of filming, the challenges of the journey, and the car that often dictated both the pace and direction of the entire adventure.
Alongside films whose authors and protagonists appeared before the audience, the summer programme also featured a selection of current Croatian and international titles, as well as acclaimed festival successes. The season at the fortress concluded with one of the classics of Croatian cinema, Kaya, I'll Kill You! by Vatroslav Mimica. Audiences enjoyed a free screening of the restored version of the film and, in a post-screening discussion between Fortress of Culture Šibenik film programme coordinator Jelena Svirčić and senior archivist Mladen Burić, learned about the challenges of the restoration process, which is set to include another 30 feature films over the next three years. The screening also marked the beginning of a permanent collaboration between Fortress of Culture and the Croatian Cinematheque of the State Archives.
After eleven seasons, Barone Summer Cinema has confirmed that it is much more than simply a place to watch films during the summer months. Premieres, appearances by directors and actors, and engaging post-screening discussions have transformed Barone into a recognizable meeting point for audiences and cinema.
The screen at the fortress now goes quiet until next season, but the film programme continues. Starting in October, new and exciting achievements of the seventh art will once again be shown at the House of Arts Arsen, where the year-round film story of Fortress of Culture Šibenik carries on.
