Dear visitors!

I am exceptionally happy to be able to greet you once again in the name of this longstanding collaboration between Zagreb Film Festival and Mediterranean Film Festival and Mediteran Cinema. I am even happier that every year the audience in Zagreb so warmly welcomes the films from the Mediteran Cinema distribution and that we have been successful in our mission to bring you small, warm, funny and above all, quality films which would have a much harder time reaching the big screen without MFFS and Mediteran Cinema. In that regard we see eye to eye with Zagreb Film Festival and that is precisely why we really enjoy this collaboration, which gives the films from ZFF the opportunity to travel around the south and our films to visit towns in the north, which we look forward to every year. This year we bring you two great titles; the first film is The Heiresses, by Marcelo Martinessi, winner of four awards at Berlinale and the Paraguayan candidate for Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. If you are wondering about the connection between the Mediterranean and South America and why this film is in the program, the answer is simple: MFFS’s biggest novelty in 2018 was a special feature on South America, entitled The Other Side of Mediterranean. In their mentality, culture, food, but also in their pronounced emphasis on religion, the countries of South America are very similar to the Mediterranean. The other film is a real Mediterranean gem. The Reports on Sarah and Saleem is an intense Palestinian dramatic thriller. The forbidden love between a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman is a well-known national problem, while the unexpected twist to the love story that develops within the absurd system machine will have you riveted to you seats just like the viewers on numerous festivals where the film won audience awards.

And while you’re enjoying our films and Zagreb Film Festival’s other rich programs – making Zagreb plenty hot in November – it is time to start planning your trip to the Mediterranean Film Festival Split in June! Spend the first days of summer with us, in the gorgeous ambiance of the Bačvice Summer Cinema and Cinematheque Zlatna vrata. Our festival always stretches over two weekends so you can definitely make it. And if you really can’t, maybe you’ll spend your vacation in one of the 26 towns in which Mediteran Cinema has one of its big screens. Even though our cinemas are open year-round, June is the beginning of the season when you can see all of our films, but also catch some of the hits from ZFF. All this in the beautiful and unique settings of open-air cinemas: the cinema in Bol (Brač) has a view of the boats and the neighboring island of Hvar, in Hvar the cinema is located inside the historical Veneranda fort, in Korčula it is an integral part of the city walls, and on Lastovo and Mljet it is a perfect combination of films and nature.

Enjoy the films and see you in Dalmatia in the summer!

Alen Munitić
Director of Mediterranean Film Festival Split