NEWS
Lab of Festival Journalism | Film Reviews from Trieste Film Festival 2025

The second session of the Lab of Festival Journalism took place from January 21 to 24, 2025, at the Trieste Film Festival. Here are the reviews and articles from the participants!

For more information about the Lab of Festival Journalism : https://miob.info/lab-of-cultural-creative-and-festival-journalism

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Slow
A film by Marija Kavtaradze
LT – ES – SE | 2023 | 108’

Only unfulfilled love can be romantic”. Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona’s provocative quote is undoubtedly a good starting point for analysing what Lithuanian director Marija Kavtaradze successfully expressed through Slow. The film was a selected project at WEMW in 2021, where it won the Producers Network Prize. It premiered at Sundance, winning the Directing Award, it has also won the MIOB New Vision Award. Its Italian premiere took place at Trieste Film Festival.

→ Read the full review, by Veronica Orciari, here

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Toxic
A film by Saulė Bliuvaitė
LT | 2024 | 99’

Saulė Bliuvaitė’s “Toxic” is the winner of the Trieste Award for Best Feature Film at the 36th edition of the Trieste Film Festival.

Consciousness of one’s body is a formative part of the transition from girlhood towomanhood. Suddenly, young girls become aware of their bodies – the burden of body image accompanies them daily. Saulė Bliuvaitė’s Toxic portrays the violating nature of the pressure to be beautiful.

→ Read the full review, by Jan Tracz, here

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Family therapy
A film by Sonja Prosenc
SLO – I – N – SRB – HR | 2024 | 122’

At a press conference during the 30th Trieste Film Festival, director Sonja Prosenc described her film Family Therapy: “The family lives in a closed glass box, in the illusion that they live in contact with nature. The reality is that it’s impossible to live isolated, having no connection with our surroundings and having no empathy.”

→ Read the full review, by Klara Jovanov, here

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Alice On & Off
A film by Isabela Tent
RO | 2024 | 86’

There is something uncanny in Alice’s expression, the main heroine of Tent’s project filmed for ten years in Romania. An indelible suspicion that whatever she says might never be enough to satisfy expectations towards – yes, you've guessed it – herself. To hide it, Alice wears a mask on top of a mask. It's an act of a rebellious girl, belligerent towards the surrounding world. Alice appears to be a liberated woman, who’s said “no” to Romanian patriarchy and decided to pursue the highest of goals: eternal freedom. Or maybe the inscrutable Alice is even more than this?

→ Read the full review, by Jan Tracz, here
→ Behind Toxic: Interview with Saulė Bliuvaitė, Vesta Matulytė and Ieva Rupeikaitė, by Klara Jovanov and Era Kolgeci

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Kyuka - Before Summer's End
A film by Kostis Charamountanis
GR – MK | 2024 | 105’

This family drama is a film of contradictions. It takes place in Poros, Greece, an island close to Athens and a popular summer destination for families from the city, who can’t afford holidays on other islands. When Elsa (Elsa Lekakou) and Konstantinos (Konstantinos Georgopoulos) sail there on a boat with their dad Babis (Simeon Tsakiris), no one expects some hidden truths are about to see daylight. And, they will meet strangers who mean more than they could have imagined. Although the family visits this Greek arcadia, their stay there won’t be that enjoyable.

→ Read the full review, by Jan Tracz, here
→ A second review, by Era Kolgeci, here

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Eight Postcards From Utopia
A film by Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz
RO | 2024 | 71’

He’s back: Radu Jude, Romanian director with an extraordinary mind. This time, he presents a patchwork-like documentary composed of advertisement footage from the 1990s and 2000s. It’s a trip you don’t want to miss.

→ Read the full review, by Jan Tracz, here

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Eight Postcards From Utopia
A film by Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz
RO | 2024 | 71’

→ Read the full review, by Jan Tracz, here

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And also :

→ Interview with Nicoletta Romeo, Artistic Director of Trieste Film Festival, by Claudia Timofte & Klara Jovanov

→ Interview with Victor Perez (visual effects supervisor), by Veronica Orciari

→ Interview with Adam Martinec (Our Lovely Pig Slaughter), by

→Interview with Lina Vdovîi (co-director of Tata), by Claudia Timofte and Réka Erőss

→ Trieste Film Festival: Voices from the Audience, by Veronica Orciari

→ When Trauma Runs in the Family, by Réka Erőss