Slovenia’s Piran shines on Europe’s film map with Netflix ties
A small but iconic square in the heart of Piran has become Slovenia's first location to make the Treasures of European Film Culture, a list of symbolic places of European cinema compiled by the European Film Academy to highlight the need to maintain and protect them.
The 1 May Square is best known to Slovenians for having been featured in the 1962 film Our Car by František Čap and the iconic 1986 coming-of-age film Summer in a Seashell by Tugo Štiglic, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.
Making the list reinforces Piran's status as "a modern.... and attractive film destination of excellence," the municipality said.
"We are happy that this has now been recognised by the European Film Academy."
Most recently, Piran provided the backdrop for a Netflix production featuring Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg, but the former fishing town has a rich filmmaking history.
In total, over 50 films have been shot in and around Piran, according to the Slovenian Film Centre.
Film industry flourished in Piran after the Second World War, when a film studio was established in what used to be a soap factory in the borough of Fornače, now best known for the town's main multi-storey car park.
Film greats such as Orson Welles, Marcello Mastroianni, James Mason, Maximilian Schell, Sam Peckinpah, Klaus Kinski, Yves Montand, Alida Valli, Gillo Pontecorvo, George Hamilton and Peter Lawford shot in the Fornače studios.
The Treasures of European Film Culture now includes 60 locations.
