February 21, 2026 - Istria on the Screen – Film Itineraries Live
23/02/2026
Following the capacity building programme held on 14 and 15 February, dedicated to strengthening film heritage interpretation and film tourism in Istria, IKA continued the initiative with an educational tour on Saturday, 21 February 2026.
Organized on the occasion of the International Tourist Guide Day, the tour titled “Istria on the Screen - Film Itineraries Live” transformed the knowledge acquired during the training into a dynamic field experience. Participants included film heritage interpreters, representatives of tourist boards, licensed tourist guides, a travel blogger, media representatives, and numerous film and Istria enthusiasts.
Rather than focusing on isolated filming locations, the tour introduced film itineraries as structured narrative routes and thematic paths that connect multiple sites into coherent storytelling experiences. Films shot in Istria were presented by Aleksandra Vinkerlić, whose long-term research has systematically explored the region’s cinematic history, mapped filming sites, documented productions and assessed their cultural and tourism value. Through her interpretation, participants discovered how dispersed locations can be transformed into meaningful journeys that guide visitors across space, time and cinematic memory.
The group first visited the Pula Amphitheatre as part of the historical film itinerary “From Rome to Hollywood.” Here, the origins of feature filmmaking in Pula were presented, from early historical spectacles to contemporary international productions. The Amphitheatre exemplified how a single heritage landmark can serve as a key node within a broader cinematic route.
The tour then continued to the Lim Channel, included in the itinerary “The Routes of the Vikings,” dedicated to international historical productions. Known in film history as the “Viking fjord,” the Lim Channel was accompanied by a pop-up exhibition of archival photographs from the filming of The Long Ships. Participants were briefly transported back to 1954, when the bay stood in for a Norwegian landscape and a Viking settlement named “Scania” was constructed on site. This stop highlighted how itineraries contextualise locations within wider production narratives and cross-cultural exchanges.
Throughout the day, participants reflected on how film itineraries function as interpretative tools, structuring content, guiding visitor movement and enhancing engagement through layered storytelling rather than isolated facts. The field-based format allowed them to test approaches that connect geography, cinema and identity into immersive experiential routes.
The mobile application “G.O.A.T. in Istria - Go on a Tour in Istria” was also presented. Featuring more than 150 films shot across the peninsula, the app organises content into thematic, genre-based and geographically structured itineraries, reinforcing the concept of film routes as a sustainable, year-round tourism product.
In Pazin, participants were welcomed by Mayor Suzana Jašić on behalf of the associated partner, the City of Pazin. She introduced local film initiatives, including Finalmente Production and the amateur underground film production created by local enthusiasts in 2007, as well as cultural development projects such as the Film Room of Istria.
The educational tour ultimately demonstrated that film itineraries are not simply collections of filming sites, but curated narrative pathways that interweave heritage, landscape and storytelling into cohesive visitor experiences. And perhaps most importantly, it showed that Istria is at its most compelling when it plays itself.
