Meet Me in Venice

Liza, a tapas maker in Amsterdam, is amazed to hear from her Italian father after an absence of 28 years. Her father, a musician, left his family when she was three, and is now asking her to travel to Venice to meet him. After an awkward first meeting – Liza having long ago been forced to distance herself emotionally from her father – he invites her to accompany him on a musical trip along the Orient Express. The journey takes them from Venice to the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, from the old town of Zagreb to the plains of northern Serbia, and from Bulgaria to Istanbul. Painful conversations are long avoided and father and daughter appear to have more in common than they thought. When they finally arrive in Turkey, Liza finds out why her father got in touch with her after all those years.

Via a video diary which she keeps for her son, we get to learn about Liza”s understandably confused feelings and unfulfilled longings. Her relationship with her amiable father is frail and the trust she once had is damaged. But she does not reject his attempts at reconciliation and also ponders on her own commitment to her family. Roberta Petzoldt and Beppe Costa explore the complex father and daughter relationship with extraordinary empathy.