5th BOOK FAIR IN ISTRIA
Book as a Film Star
6th – 16th December 1999
Cinema Pula
If luck would have it, and if the Fair had a permanent venue, we believe that the abandoned and derelict space of the Cinema Pula - the place of the first fascination with film for many generations of Pula citizens - would never be given a second life.
Now the Book - in a manner of a real film star - enlivened the stalls and the stage beneath the big screen. At the Fair, 170 Croatian publishers displayed their book titles, this time on the real bookshelves.
The encyclopedia published by the Institute of Lexicography Miroslav Krleža, titled Krlesiana, was proclaimed the Book of the Fair. Many of the book promotions culminated with the concerts of well-known Istrian musicians: Tamara Obrovac, Dario Marušić, and Livio Morosin.
For the first time, a foreign author participated in the Fair. The Argentinian writer Federico Andahasi, author of a highly contradictory book titled The Anatomist, stayed at the Pula Fair for two days. Long lines for the books and autographs, vast crowds in front of the stage, TV cameras and flashes – coming not only from journalists but also from the ladies in their golden age – these are the scenes that secured Andahazi a special place in the history of the Fair.
It was also the first time that the Fair got extensive media coverage. The words of Slobodan Prosperov Novak - "Compared to the Book Fair(y) in Istria, Interliber looks like a county fair“ - echoed through Croatia, while the numerous newspaper articles and television reports introduced the Fair to the wider audience. The Fair was visited by a record number of 60,000 people.
