In depth · Balkan cinema
Ljubljana on film: Valley of Peace and the Slovenian Cinematheque
Our long read on Balkan cinema tells the story of the whole region; this page gathers the films, the stars and the places that belong to Ljubljana, with official trailers wherever they exist.
Updated October 2026
Valley of Peace and a first at Cannes
France Štiglic’s Valley of Peace (1956) follows two children who flee a bombed town and an American airman who shelters them as both armies search for him. At Cannes in 1957 John Kitzmiller won best actor for the role, the first Black actor ever to do so. The Festival de Cannes brought the film back in a restored version for its Cannes Classics in 2016.
The Slovenian Cinematheque and LIFFe
The Slovenian Cinematheque is the place to see Slovenian classics and world cinema in the original, and in summer it moves outdoors to Metelkova. Each November LIFFe, the Ljubljana International Film Festival, fills the city’s screens, and in summer there are films under the stars at Ljubljana Castle and on Congress Square.
Slovenian Cinematheque LIFFe Open-air cinema, Metelkova Cinema in Ljubljana: the back story Balkan Cinema: our long read on the ULTIMATE Regions guide
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Sources: the Festival de Cannes (festival-cannes.com), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (oscars.org), the Berlinale and the Venice Biennale archives, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (havc.hr), the AFI Catalog, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, MoMA, Sixth Tone, SBS and the festival press, checked on 25 October 2026. Trailers are embedded from the official YouTube channels of each film’s producer, distributor or national film centre; where none exists online, we leave it out. Stories about stars and the region are many, and we print only those we can check.