Vista Mare is a poetic and surrealist documentary revealing the hidden labour behind ‘a holiday in the sun’ on Italy’s Northern Adriatic Coastal resorts. Shot over an entire working season (Feb to Oct), it takes viewers on a journey through an artificial landscape built to amuse vacationers. Vista Mare’s camera purposefully watches a multi-national army of seasonal labourers toiling from dawn to dark. Workers test remote-controlled umbrellas, meticulously prepare meals, and most importantly, jolly the patrons into having a good time. Meanwhile on the shoreline, thousands of guests paddle in the waves and enjoy carefully scheduled fun. Little wonder the demands of their jobs drive the workers to chant “Slaves? Never!” in a protest carefully overseen by the Police. In an absurdist loop, Vista Mare watches the workers, who watch other workers play, until the sky turns cloudy, the beaches empty, and the last umbrella closes.

-- Dir. Julia Gutweniger, Florian Kofler - 80min - 2023 - Austria, Italy --

"While the soundscape suggests a compelling mixture of boredom and productivity, the stillness of the visual compositions pleasantly recalls the deadpan absurdism of Roy Andersson’s cinema.....Subtly subverting postcard-perfect ideals of cerulean waters and golden sands, Vista Mare casts its astute gaze on the troubled waters that swell beneath the bright blue sky." - Guardian

"The machinery of mass tourism captures the chaos of things and life in orderly and symmetrical lines. Scenic and atmospheric tableaux of mostly fixed, analytical camera shots capture spectacular micro-events at the holiday resort on the Italian Adriatic with a feel for the right moment. The absurdity of the repetitive, standardised actions of tourism, carried out as if on an assembly line, emerges in veritable canvas paintings. The open and yet precisely framed images invite exploration and are an unobtrusive school of seeing that casually allows the gaze to become the actual protagonist of the film" **Winner** Best Cinematography, Diagonale

"a surreal and poetic documentary that reveals the hidden work behind “sunny holidays” in the tourist resorts of the northern Italian Adriatic coast." - Locarno Film Fest

"reveal(s) the grotesque and paradoxical side of a world that under the sun appears fun and exciting. A world that is revealed here as a cold, millimeter-like mechanism that cages, disappoints, and is ultimately totalizing. An aseptic and analytical look that is not to be forgotten, not least for its fierce irony." - **Winner** Best Italian Film, Festival dei Popoli

"Gutweniger and Kofler opt for a strictly observational method...overhearing conversations but never intervening in them and refusing to portray the whole operation as a class conflict. Gutweniger’s long takes are immaculately composed...they are astonishing and serve the purpose of showing the terrifyingly large scale of the business, in which all individuality tends to get lost." - Cineuropa