CBA TRIESTE The Cinematic Battle for the Adriatic: Films, Frontiers, and the Trieste Crisis
The project CBA TRIESTE, coordinated by Dr. Dunja Jelenković, researcher at Ca' Foscari University in Venice, analyses cinematic practices related to the Trieste Crisis (1945-1954), the diplomatic struggle over the Italo-Yugoslav borderlands at the outset of the Cold War. Both countries produced several films about these events, often utilizing the same footage – Yugoslav partisans in Trieste, Italians leaving the region, political protests – but framing them in conflicting ways: as occupation/liberation, migration/exodus, anticommunist/antifascist protests. As the conflict coincided with the establishment of film festivals, the festival circuit became an arena in which the struggle for cultural hegemony took place. Taking festivals as Lieux de mémoire, CBA TRIESTE explores how the cinematic representation of the struggle for this territory has been employed to construct politically suitable cultural memories related to the conflict’s national and ideological concerns.
The struggle for the Northern Adriatic remains one of the most controversial issues in contemporary Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. This is due to the violence of the period, including accusations of war crimes committed by both sides, and Italian emigration from the areas that became part of socialist Yugoslavia. Hence, in 2004 the Italian government established Giorno del Ricordo to commemorate what it terms the “Italian tragedy” in the territories that it lost to Yugoslavia. This has fuelled the rediscovery of this once-marginalised topic and inspired the restoration of old and production of new films on this subject. As such, any political analysis of this disputed past, is indisputably a political analysis of the present.
LINK TO THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE PROJECT
Dr. Dunja Jelenković is a historian, a specialist in Yugoslav documentary film and the cultural history of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Her research focuses on Yugoslav film festivals and the relationship between image, history and memory. She is currently a researcher at the Ca' Foscari University in Venice with her postdoctoral project CBA TRIESTE - Cinematic Battle for the Adriatic: Films, Frontiers and the Trieste Crisis.
Announcements/
Cinema in Udine
07. 01. 2025To discuss the history of cine-club culture in Udine, one must start with Guido Galanti, who in 1930 founded Cine Club Udine—the third cine-club in Italy in chronological order. Alongside him, Renato Spinotti (Dante Spinotti’s uncle) must also be mentioned. In 1934, Cine Club produced the 16mm medium-length film Giornate di sole (Sunny Days), a comedy directed and performed by Galanti, with cinematography by Spinotti. The opening title card featured a hand-drawn depiction of the angel on Udine’s hill and the inscription “La Galanti Film presenta” (Galanti Film Presents). Author: Giorgio Placereani
Trieste – The World in One City
07. 01. 2025Today I will attempt to summarize the development of cinematic culture in Trieste. I will discuss some well-known facts, such as the favourable view of cinema held by Trieste’s writers and intellectuals, or the city’s role as a bridge between Western and Eastern cinema. However, I also want to highlight a less discussed aspect: the presence of women in Trieste’s cinematic culture over the years. Author: Paolo Lughi
Retrospective East/West
27. 11. 2024The East/West Retrospective is part of the official program for the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025. The project aims to reveal the rich cinematic heritage of the cross-border region between Slovenia and Italy to European audiences. The filmography of this region, which explores life along the Slovenian-Italian border, challenges the conventional perception of borders as mere divisions, instead portraying them as vibrant spaces of transition, exchange, and connection.