Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri

When: Friday, November 27 – Sunday, December 6, 2026
Where: Dom hrvatskih branitelja, Pula, Croatia

The 32nd Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri – Pula Festival of Books and Authors returns to Pula under the theme “La vita è bella”, offering a defiant response to increasingly dark and uncertain times.

More than 100 authors, writers, philosophers, theorists and artists from Croatia, the region and around the world will gather at Dom hrvatskih branitelja for ten days dedicated to literature, philosophy, visual art, photography, performance and film.

This year’s theme explores the many meanings contained within the phrase “La vita è bella” – not as a simple celebration of optimism or *la dolce vita*, but as an affirmation of life even when confronted with its most difficult realities. Inspired in part by Roberto Benigni’s iconic film, the festival asks whether beauty, meaning and humanity can survive in circumstances defined by fear, loss and uncertainty.

Through book presentations, round-table discussions, exhibitions, screenings and staged storytelling, the festival’s guests will explore how literature and art can become acts of resistance: ways of refusing disappearance, preserving dignity and searching for truth and meaning even in the darkest moments.

As anthropologist Andrea Matošević writes in his essay “Oksimoron iz Coyoacána”, reflecting on this year’s theme: “If you want to survive and preserve life even in a place where it has already been taken from you, in a place where you are already effectively dead, you must not consent to your own disappearance.”

Across around 100 events, the 32nd Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri will celebrate precisely these moments of refusal – rare flashes of meaning, truth and humanity found in artistic and intellectual work. This idea is also reflected in the festival’s visual identity, created by longtime collaborator Mauricio Ferlin, who approaches “La vita è bella” not through hedonism or idealised happiness, but through the full complexity of human experience and the belief that life can remain beautiful because of the truth and meaning we continue to seek within it.

The 32nd Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Pula, the Istria County and the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, with Zagrebačka banka and Arena Hospitality Group as long-standing sponsors.

More information: sanjamknjige.hr and Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri on Facebook and Instagram.