FILM MACHT FREI (August 5, 2012)

Motovun is abuzz with all sorts of stories, but there is one thing that delights me more than I could have imagined: the wall that Damir Gregorović, known to all as Greg, has built for the film festival (“The Great Wall of China,” July 28, 2012). It has become famous far and wide. It even got into the news. Four full days after the event, it is still there in all its glory. The barbed wire gives me the greatest delight, too. Talking with Željko Vukadinović and Damir Karakaš, my neighbors from across the street, I came up with the final touch for Greg’s wall: an inscription giving it lasting meaning. Željko suggested the old “Arbeit macht frei” from Auschwitz, but I immediately came up with a slight but vital improvement: “Film macht frei.” After all, it is nothing less than the Motovun film festival that has propelled Greg into action.