The second day of the 12th Star Film Fest, Friday, August 22nd, begins with a program for the youngest audience featuring an inclusive screening accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals – the film “Ježeva kuća” (The Hedgehog’s Home) at Theatre 21, organized in collaboration with the initiative Film for All. The Film for All project was launched in 2016 within the Filmaktiv Association and has been continuously implemented in partnership with the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (UGIN), and since 2021 also with the Association of the Blind of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. Its goals are to adapt audiovisual cultural content for people with hearing and visual impairments and to promote inclusive cultural practices. The project consists of three main parts: translation and adaptation of films, public screenings and promotion, and the creation of a film media library adapted to sign language. Since its launch in 2016, the project has focused on deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, enabling them to enjoy films made in Croatian. Through the translation and adaptation process, films produced in Croatian gain customized subtitles as well as a recording of a Croatian sign language interpreter, making them accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.
In the afternoon at the 12th Star Film Fest, you will have the opportunity to attend a masterclass lecture by the renowned Croatian actor Goran Grgić. Pre-registration is required via an online form. The day continues at the same venue with the second, third, and fourth competition screenings. All competition films will also be available for viewing through VR glasses.
On the big screen follows a screening of this year’s domestic box office hit, the documentary “Fiume o morte!” directed by Igor Bezinović, also organized in collaboration with the Film for All initiative – the screening is inclusive and accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Poetry, cocaine, dynamite, rifles, football, airplanes, furniture flying out of windows, concerts, prisons, sunbathing, thousands of soldiers, millions of bullets, endless speeches, and even a platypus… All are part of one of the most bizarre occupations in human history. In 1919, Italian poet, dandy, and war preacher Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied the city of Fiume. Citizens of Fiume, today known as Rijeka, recount and reinterpret the bizarre story of the 16-month occupation of their city in a brutally factual yet defiantly punk cinematic journey. “Fiume o morte!” is the new film by Igor Bezinović, the award-winning director of “A Brief Excursion” (2017) and “The Blockade” (2012). This playful docu-fiction piece is not only the most-watched documentary film in Croatia, but it also brings this unusual historical episode of Rijeka to life through reconstructions and retellings, relying on a rich photographic archive and the narration of numerous Rijeka citizens who took part in the making of the film.
For the evening gathering and a relaxed atmosphere around Theatre 21, DJ Mario Kovač will take care of the music. This year, he joins the SFF program with his classic mix of various music styles, which – especially for this year’s festival – we can call “STAR TRACKS”: a combination of pop, rock, dance, trash, metal, (t)rap, and electronic hits from the 1950s to today, with a special emphasis on film themes and songs used in movie blockbusters. It’s a kind of musical time machine offering something for everyone – and especially for the most dance-loving among you!
