The international programme of the Pula Film Festival (PFF), held on July 14-22, will this year include feature films, documentaries, and drama series, as well as a selection of European and independent international films previously screened at prestigious festivals, which makes PFF's programme the richest so far, organisers said on Thursday.

The festival’s art director, Zlatko Vidackovic, said that films would be screened at 20 different venues around the Istrian city of Pula in western Croatia, with the programme covering audiences of all age groups.

This year the festival will mark its 65th edition and the 80th anniversary of the first film screening in the Arena, the city’s famous Roman-built amphitheatre.

“The international programme has an even longer tradition than the national programme, the first international film screening in the Arena was in 1938, and after World War II, the screenings resumed in 1953,” said Vidackovic in a news conference held in Zagreb.

This year’s partner country is Israel, which will participate with a retrospective programme, and one entry in the international programme. Israeli Ambassador Zina Kalay-Kleitman said that the retrospective would feature eight carefully curated movies.

Israel has never been considered a film country, but since it has started investing in the film industry, it has become a film country, particularly in the last decade, said the ambassador.

This year’s festival will show a number of French films, in partnership with the French Institute from Zagreb.

Guillaume Colin, the institute’s head and advisor on cooperation and culture of the French Embassy, said that Pula had a long tradition of showing French films, and that this year’s festival would feature a diverse selection, from cartoons to feature films.

Colin recalled the long-lasting cultural cooperation between Croatia and France. “The French Institute in Zagreb has existed since 1922, and we still have a very lively programme,” he said.

The Pula Film Festival’s programme will feature 13 French movies. Also screened will be the 1930s French romantic drama Mayerling directed by Anatole Litvak, shown at the festival in 1938.

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