Cicadas going full volume in the pines, gravel crunching under someone’s heels, a cork popping somewhere behind the villa. That’s what I remember first from filming at Villa Polesini, right on the old town waterfront in Poreč, before I remember anything I actually saw through the viewfinder.
Gabi and Andres arrived here from three different lives. She grew up between Costa Rica and Miami. He grew up in Chile. They found each other at a medical conference in San Antonio, of all places, two doctors trading notes on gastroenterology who ended up trading vows instead. What struck me filming their day was how much of their story lived in distance: a pandemic that grounded flights and closed borders, a long-distance stretch that asked more patience than most relationships ever have to give, and then Andres agreeing to marry in a country he’d never once set foot in before the wedding week itself.
The ceremony borrowed a little of everything, an old handfasting chant, a reading from The Notebook, a sister’s speech that made the whole tent laugh through its tears. And somewhere behind all of it sat Villa Polesini’s quiet grounds, holding a gathering of Costa Rican, Chilean, and Croatian voices that had never occupied the same room before that afternoon.
By the time the toasts wound down and the last glasses were cleared, it felt less like a wedding in Croatia and more like Croatia had simply opened a door and let this particular family in. That’s the thing about filming here in Poreč: the place does half the storytelling before I even lift the camera.
Watch the full film below.