Just before noon I left the house with a clear and simple mission: mail a letter at the post office on Andrea Antico Square and buy something to eat at the grocery store on Gradiziol. Ten minutes or so, I thought. At the post office I met Sonja, who manages the accounts of almost all Motovun businesses. Having not seen each other for several days, we gabbed for a few minutes. I also talked with the post-office clerk, Zvjezdana. One question I had for both of them was about the film to be screened at the town cinema tomorrow evening. Yesterday I saw a poster about it on the notice board in the town loggia, but it was gone by this morning. I knew it was a movie from the Matrix series, but I wanted to know which one. Neither of them knew for sure. They sent me to Vojka at the municipal office next door, but she was not sure, either. Most likely it was the second, she said, as the third was released only recently. After a brief chat, I left the square and headed for the store. As is often the case this late in the season, Josef Ressel Square was deserted. At the intersection between Gradiziol and Barbacan I bumped into Ronald, who took me to his restaurant by the place’s name, Barbacan. His wife, Jasmina, was at the bar counter, sifting through a pile of bills. They are about to leave for the Netherlands, where they will spend most of the winter. We chatted over coffee and wine. I mentioned the movie to them, too, but they did not know anything about it. After a while, I left them and headed for the store. I had a clear run, too, but in the store I met Vittorio, whom I got to know a bit better only yesterday over dinner at Benjamin’s, the other restaurant in town, Pod Voltom or Under the Arch. Vittorio is Igor’s father, and Igor is the town’s carpenter married to Vojka, the municipal clerk. Igor was at yesterday’s dinner, as well. And so were Benjamin and Zoran, whose two frozen octopuses Benjamin had baked for the whole bunch under the open fire. Soon we will get together again for Benjamin’s tripe, among the favorite dishes of everyone in the group. Anyhow, Vittorio invited me for a glass of wine in his cellar across the street from Ronald and Jasmina’s. But he started by showing me Igor’s carpentry shop, which will be moving to Karojba any day now. Not enough space for a growing business, he explained. Karojba is a small town on the road to Pazin, some ten kilometers south of Motovun. Having left Vittorio, who had poured me a large glass of his own young red wine, I had another clear run all the way to Borgo, but there I bumped into Ljubica, who was just leaving her house to go to the store. In her mid-seventies, she is the cheer of many a party. We exchanged a few words, and then I walked down the street all the way to my door. She, too, knew next to nothing about tomorrow’s movie. All in all, it took me nearly two hours to return home. My time estimate was wrong by a factor of about ten.

Addendum (December 6, 2003)

There were two adults and a dozen kids in the movies tonight. Well, half way through the screening, another adult joined us. Of course, I knew everyone present. And everyone was quite well behaved, except in the pauses between reels. All told, there were three reels and two pauses. The movie, the third in the Matrix series, as it turned out, was the pits. Absolute fucking pits. It was easily the most inane film I have ever seen. But my main complaint is elsewhere: this evening I missed the Motovun throngs. The next time I go to the movies, I will carefully consider what is on offer. It will have to be something that will attract the entire community. That will be the film for me.