A Window East in Trieste
Interviews, reviews, and dispatches from the crossroads of Central and Eastern European cinema
From 16 to 24 January 2026, the Trieste Film Festival returns as Italy’s most vital window onto Central and Eastern European cinema, a nine day survey of premieres, rediscoveries, and the region’s restless present. This year’s 37th edition pairs its celebrated Documentary Competition with broader strands and conversations, with When East Meets West running in parallel. In this newsletter, find our interview with documentary programmer Rada Šešić, alongside reviews across the festival’s nonfiction sections, and we will be on site in Trieste, filing dispatches as the programme unfolds.
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News
«Wild Roses» brings Slovenian women’s cinema to the 37th Trieste Film Festival
Trieste announces opening/closing films for 2026 festival
Interview
«It’s not about building a slogan or a topic. It’s about building trust between the films»
The Trieste Film Festival is Italy’s key window onto Central and Eastern European cinema, and its 2026 documentary competition arrives as ten Italian premieres shaped by war, migration, labour, and the afterlives of institutions.
Films
9-Month Contract
Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili
It's not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.
Cent’anni
Director: Maja Doroteja Prelog
Love, illness, and resilience on a transformative cycling journey through Italy.
Forget Me Not
Director: Anja Medved
Visual essays that probe memory and denial, arguing that oblivion may comfort the vulnerable but doesn’t avert violence.
In the Penal Colony
Director: Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, Alberto Diana
Sardinia’s last penal colonies merge inmates, workers, animals, machines, and wind into a lyrical collective cry for freedom.
Landscapes of Resistance
Director: Marta Popivoda
An unorthodox documentary on the exceptional journey of one of Serbia's first female partisans, who helped lead the resistance in Auschwitz.
Militantropos
Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi
From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.
The Kartli Kingdom
Director: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel
Three generations endure postwar exile in a fractured building above Tbilisi.
The Sky Above Zenica
Director: Nanna Frank Møller, Zlatko Pranjic
A Bosnian town grapples with pollution, health crises, and conflicting interests, as citizens demand accountability from a massive steel plant.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Director: Anna Hints
Female solidarity through Estonian women continuing an age-old tradition.
Trains
Director: Maciej Drygas
IDFA best film award winner Polish director Maciej Drygas's entrancing Trains is a mesmerising journey through much of the 20th century by rail, accompanied by a subtly intense soundtrack.
We Live Here
Director: Zhanana Kurmasheva
A Kazakh family affected by a Soviet-era nuclear test site
Excellent overview of the Trieste Film Festival! Central and Eastern European cinema deserves this spotlight. Looking forward to reading your dispatches from the ground as the festival unfolds.