The festival Poklon viziji (Homage to the Vision) opens with the Slovenian premiere of the film The Last One for the Road by Francesco Sossai
The inaugural film of this year's cross-border festival Poklon viziji (Homage to the Vision) was directed by Francesco Sossai who is considered one of the most groundbreaking Italian filmmakers of the younger generation. The author intertwines documentaristic sensitivity and poetic fiction. His feature film The Last One for the Road (Le città di pianura, 2025, 98') was premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, while the Slovenian premiere will take place on the opening night of the festival Homage to the Vision on Tuesday, October 7th, at 6:00p.m. at the Nova Gorica Cultural Cente (Kulturni Dom) with the opening address held by Stojan Pelko, the GO! 2025 Head of Programming.
The film has been selected for several other prestigious international festivals. Besides the Cannes festival (Un Certain Regard), the film was shown at the Busan International Film Festival 2025 (Flash Forward), Filmfest München 2025 (CineCoPro Competition), the New York Film Festival 2025 (Main Slate), TIFF – the Toronto International Film Festival 2025 (Centrepiece), and the Vancouver International Film Festival 2025 (Panorama). In January 2026, the film will be screened in cinemas throughout Slovenia, distributed by Demiurg.
Sossai explores life, the territory and the soul of Veneto
The road film features Carlobianchi and Doriano, two broke fiftysomethings with a “never skip the last drink” philosophy, who meet Giulio, a shy architecture student. What starts as a chance encounter turns into a new friendship and a chaotic road trip through the Venetian plains. »First and foremost, I would like people to remember my extremely wonderful actors, and at the same time finding joy in the little adventures and the little odysseys, which shape our life experiences, and are an important part of the story,« says Sossai.
Sossai's creative process is interlaced with the Italian region of Veneto, where he originates from. »When I began wandering through the Venetian plains six years ago, I didn’t know yet what I was looking for. I collected hundreds of small scenes – snippets of overheard conversations in bars, on trains, and on buses. Then I joined forces with Adriano Candiago, who co-wrote the screenplay with me. We spread all our notes out on a table and started rearranging them into a map of the story,« he explains. He is critical of changes in his home environment: »I find it meaningful that today we use the word “territory” rather than “land” – that semantic shift says a lot about how little is left of rural Veneto. A countryside is no longer a countryside, but hasn’t become a city yet. I wanted to explore the soul of a region that has become a very wealthy cemetery; anything that doesn’t relate to commerce is disappearing, ecosystems are polluted, old homes are abandoned or demolished.«
Also premiering is Sossai's short film, produced by Kinoatelje
The Tuesday opening will see the premiere of Sossai's short film In the Clouds of Memory (2025, 6'), which was created in the Gorizia region as one of the five films produced by Kinoatelje in the framework of the project Our Everyday Cinema. Laura Samani, Ester Ivakič, Jan Devetak and Otto Lazić-Reuschel are the authors of the other short films included in the omnibus which will be screened on Thursday, October 9th at the House of film. The opening presentation will be given by the director and project mentor Alessandro Comodin.
The opening night will showcase films alongside a diverse artistic programme
Following the Tuesday screenings at the Nova Gorica Cultural Centre, the event will continue in the train station subway. Horizons, a video installation by the K3 Film Festival from Villach, Austria, will be presented in the Ingeborg Bachmann Dome at 9:00 p.m. The authors of the installation are Piera Nodari and Fritz Hock. The event will be attended by filmmakers Karpo Godina, Davorin Marc, Thomas Hörl, Peter Kozek and Victor Jaschke, whose worksare included in the video installation. The evening will continue with an informal gathering and refreshments at Epic Café, where we will toast to the opening of this year's film festival.