In late September, Autokino – Kinotank will open to the public in Trsat at the Rijeka University campus. This new open-air venue will show three satirical anti-war films – the timeless The Great Dictator  by Charlie Chaplin, M*A*S*H by the legendary Robert Altman and the flawless Cabaret by Bob Fosse.

Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) will be screened on 9 October at 8 p.m. The film will be shown in the new screening area, which was constructed specifically for this occasion, while the sound will be transmitted over a 91.6 FM radio frequency, as with previous drive-in screenings.

Cabaret is a 1972 musical directed by Bob Fosse, starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. It is set in Weimar-era Berlin in 1931, shortly before Hitler’s rise to power.

About 100 years ago, the premises of the current Campus were transformed from a pasture into a state-of-the-art army barracks of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on what was then its western border. It was later occupied by Italian and German invading forces; however, the longest resident was the Yugoslav People’s Army, which initially liberated the city in WWII, but ultimately became a threat at the onset of the Homeland War. After the YPA was peacefully evicted, the Croatian Army stayed there for 10 years before giving it over to the City at the beginning of the century to provide a campus for the University of Rijeka. The only unrefurbished building from the period of military use will now become a drive-in cinema.

The anti-war satire looks at the horrors and absurdities of war and combat through a humane prism in an attempt to preserve sanity in madness. Today, when it seems as though we will never see the end to the pandemic, while being surrounded by the threat of nuclear war, auguries of civil wars and riots from Portland to Minsk and from Damascus to Hong Kong, such films reflect on global and European history by harshly criticising war and the military system in a location that was affected by military operations and evokes memories of local warfare.