A superb programme at the Tuškanac Cinema

Strollers through Tuškanac, the leafy oasis in the very centre of the city, can look forward to a special treat: after 42 years they can again enjoy an outdoor movie-watching experience on the stage of the Tuškanac Summer Cinema. Throughout the summer and autumn there will be projections of blockbusters and lesser known movies, concerts, exhibitions and shows.

The Tuškanac Cinema, located a stone’s throw from the main city square in the greenery of Dubravkin Put,  again attracts film aficionados and culture vultures just like it last did 42 years ago. After more than four decades the cinema has been thoroughly refurbished and its doors have been reopened to audiences this summer. The capacity of the spectator area is about 500 seats. The most impressive thing about the cinema is the great similarity it has to the venue that it once was nearly half a century ago. This is due to the restoration of the projection booth based on the original 1954 design by Kazimir Ostrogović. The auditorium and the stage have also been carefully restored and enhanced with a new projection screen of an enviable size.

During the summer and autumn months, the cinema will mostly serve as the movie projection venue. However, in between blockbusters and lesser known movies audiences will also be able to enjoy other types of entertainment, such as concerts and theatre shows. Namely, the cinema has been rented to the troupe of the Komedija Theatre, and so their shows will regularly be staged on this attractive summer stage. The movie programme certainly merits attention as it features daily projections of selected titles from some of the biggest film festivals in the country. From mid-July to 10 August, the programme will feature the best of the best from the Pula and Motovun film festivals – the two most respectable film festivals in the country. In addition to the Tuškanac Summer Cinema, the best films and many awarded films will be shown in the Metropolis, Grič and KIC cinemas.

The rest of the summer is reserved for movies from the programmes of the Best of the Days of the European Cinema (10 to 14 August), the Starigrad Paklenica Film Festival (15 to 19 August), and up until the end of August, for films from two other programmes, the Cycle of Documentary Movies, Restart and Boys in the Wood – films selected by the listeners of the popular programme Soundset Plavi Radio Zagreb.

The  autumn programme at the Tuškanac Cinema continues in September with a cycle of contemporary Korean movies, while the month of October will be marked by several different programmes – Japanese cinematography, films  from the famous Winnetou series (some of which were shot on locations in Croatia), and the end of the month will feature French movies.
The traditional cycle of Ibero-American movies, i.e. ten contemporary films from Portugal, Spain, Chile and Argentina, will be shown in November, followed by several movies from neighbouring Italy. The viewing season will come to a close symbolically with a selection of global blockbusters.