About Gorski Kotar

One of the most beautiful mountain regions in Croatia where you might also need a woolly sweater amidst the sweltering summer heat.   

Enjoy the tranquillity of untouched nature, surrounded by forests, lakes, caves, clear bubbling streams and rivers. There is also a wildlife reserve, the only place in Europe where the brown bear, grey wolf and Eurasian lynx live side by side. All around are picturesque hiking trails enticing you to complement cinematic delights with explorations of pristine nature.

Alongside wild beasts, there is the secret world of mythical creatures: dwarves reside in sinkholes, fairies and witches dwell around Lake Lokvar, and in the forest of Golubinjak hides the Midnight Man, a terrifying 14-metre-tall giant.

People here have always lived modestly and in constant struggle with the beautiful, yet untameable environment. These misty and inaccessible forests inhabited by wild beasts and mythical creatures is precisely why the ancient Romans put it down in their maps as Hortus Diabolicus – Devil’s Garden.

In honour of the festival’s silver jubilee, at the heart of the “Devil’s Garden” – the mountain resort Petehovac above Delnice, we are creating a film forest, setting up screens, and building an enchanted cinematic village. It will be our new “hill of films” – or rather, a mountain. The new location combines mountain adventure, a return to nature, and must-see films.

Our new cinematic mountaintop is easily accessible from the motorway: less than a ten-minute drive or a 45-minute leisurely walk along a hiking trail.