The Casa del Cinema Association of Trieste, in collaboration with the Cineteca del Friuli, presents the exhibition "Trieste: City of Spies." This exhibition features playbills and posters of spy films shot in Trieste or set in the city, spanning from the end of World War II to the 1960s; and will be open for viewing until January 24, 2025. The exhibition "Trieste Città di Spie" explores the city's dual cinematic identity. It highlights Trieste first as a symbol of Cold War tensions and then as a backdrop for entertainment films that celebrate the allure of adventure and espionage.
Between 1945 and 1954, Trieste was at the centre of a significant international debate. This dispute arose from the collapse of Nazi fascism and the onset of the Cold War, placing Western powers, such as the United States and Great Britain, against communist Yugoslavia, which was supported by the Soviet Union. The city became a symbol of the “Iron Curtain,” which, as Winston Churchill stated in 1946, stretched “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.” The streets of Trieste were filled with secret agents, diplomats, soldiers, and politicians, all actively engaged in defending or gaining strategic positions. This atmosphere of suspicions, escapes and double-crosses has fueled the cinematic imagination. The exhibition displays posters of those films which, in the midst of the Cold War, represented Trieste as a turbulent place, populated by spies and international intrigues. Diplomatic Courier is one of the first examples of how the city is portrayed as a center of shady dealings, while films such as Mr. Arkadin by Orson Welles (1954) portray Trieste as a dangerous and adventurous destination, full of mysteries. Even the famous From Russia with Love, the second chapter of the James Bond saga, mentions Trieste as the first Western outpost behind the Iron Curtain.
Shadows Over Trieste is a 1952 Italian war drama film directed by Nerino Florio Bianchi and starring Giulio Donnini, Livio Lorenzon and Adriana Innocenti. It was part of a group of films made around the time that asserted Italy's unquestionable right to the disputed Free Territory of Trieste. The Stranger's Hand (Italian: La mano dello straniero) is a 1954 British-Italian thriller drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Trevor Howard, Alida Valli and Richard Basehart. An international co-production, it is based on the draft novel with the same name written by Graham Greene.The plot follows the son of a British MI5 agent kidnapped in Venice by agents of Yugoslavia as he searches for his father.
In the 1960s, the image of Trieste evolved further, thanks to the emergence of the "Eurospy" genre—an intriguing category inspired by the international success of James Bond. Trieste served as the perfect backdrop for new films that embraced the allure of espionage. In these vibrant and adventurous productions, teetering between pop art and atomic threats, quirky Italian spies appeared with unusual names like Agent 008, 777, and OSS77. They navigated a version of Trieste depicted as a transit hub for spies of all kinds. Many of these films were often shot in the pavilions of the Montebello Trade Fair and the Ceria studios, capturing the essence of Trieste as a frontier city.
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