Trieste

5. am. It’s dark. My father comes to pick me up. Destination: Trieste. Tonight there’s the screening of Mostar United at the Trieste Film Festival 2009. It’s the first time that my father comes to a screening of a film of mine. It could be that finally he really understands what kind of job is to be a filmaker. The time of “Ehi Claudia, since you are a professional, check the dvd player, there’s something wrong with it!” could be over.   It will be hard for him, bosnian dialogues with italian subtitles. He hates subtitles.  He hates films with subtitles in general. Too snobbish, too essai-like. But he doesn’t complain and he’s happy to attend the Premiere of the long version of my film. Long version, even more scary than “subtitles”. But again he doesn’t complain. He’s excited.

Trieste is a city which I love. In its squares and narrow streets you breath some sense of eternity and peace. My father looks very interested in the architecture of the buildings. You see, he’s a surveyor. He’s amazed, I am worried for the screening and join the film projectionist to check the screener and dub it with the new and definitive sound design I just got from Amsterdam. Paolo is very nice. The audio dub is possible and we are in time for it. While we do the job, we talk about cinema and his passion in transferring film rolls to digital. He’s very expert and he’s such a carachter! Oh, no! There’s a mistake in the master. One more! And a third one! Three time laps are not correct. There was a mistake of communication between the color correction and the editing softwares and the master has 3 black and white stills instead of 3 time laps of the landscape. Only one hour left and we have to leave. What should we do? Thank heaven we are in the internet era. Marco, from the office in Torino, sends us the clips of the three time laps and after some complicated operations we are able to insert them on the black and white stills. The film is save. But I can’t relax.

My father picks me up. It’s lunch time. Where should we go? Paolo knows for sure. “Paolo, where do domestic people go for lunch if they can’t go home?” “Siora Rosa for sure. It’s a “buffet”. This is how we call our traditional but cheap restaurants. Only domestic cuisine. It’s not for tourists. Workers go during their short lunch break. ”. Fantastic! That’s what I wanted to hear. Siora Rosa is gorgeous. It’s a family restaurant. Simple, not fancy but homy and friendly. Few dishes. Everything is home made.

My meal is unforgettable: tender pork with mustard and kren, with eggplans marinated at the greek way. So tasty and good. If you ever go to Trieste and want to have an incredibile and sensual gastronomic experience: Siora Rosa, Piazza Attilio Hortis.

The movie theatre is not full, but there are a lot of people. My father sits on my right side. We are in the middle of the theatre, my producer is in the first raw. During the screening a couple, sitting close to me, laughes very often. They are enjoying the screening and understanding much more than the subtitles allow to do. They must know the language for sure. The film ends. A great applause welcomes us. I look at my father “Did you like it?” “Oh yes, it lasted more than one hour and I didn’t feel asleep. Not even once!”. The couple comes and thanks me for the film “I liked it, really . Thank you. My name is Miro and this is my wife, Izeta”. I know those names. Wow, they are the Sarajevo Film Festival in person. Of course they undorstood the language. They’re also very good friends with my producers but we didn’t know they were there.

Edoardo, my producer, comes to me pale and shaking his head. “Terrible sound, terrible”. I didn’t know what to say except that I felt guilty because I insisted to dub the master right before the screening with the new sound design. Maybe something went wrong. It was such a mess. But I really didn’t notice anything wrong during the screening. Miro was nice “Don’t worry Edoardo, the sound was great to me. Maybe it was hard to understand Mensud’s words in the training with the sheep. But ok”. Edoardo was desperate. I felt guilty. He explained me about this terrible echo during the whole film. Echo? What echo are you talking about??? The kind of echo you hear if you sit in the first row behind the speakers, says the technician! Poor Edoardo, he saw the film in terrible conditions, fighting with the urge to stand up and shout “Stop it! The sound is terrible, we can’t go on!”. And he didn’t ask himself why he was the only one in the first row! The audience was really nice to me, asking questions and sharing what they felt during the screening. In Italy, Trieste is the right place to be with a film like this.

My father was very surprised to see so many people around me. The interviews were the cherry. But I was proud of him, too. During the dinner he was talking with Miro Purivatra all the time. I was curious to get what they were talking about because my father can’t speak any foreign language and Miro can’t speak italian. Also the subject was a mistery to me. What are they talking about? Politics? Films? No way! Football, of course. You don’t need any linguistic knowledge, since the ball is round for everybody.