One of the perks of this job is seeing films around the world in some very special places.

Pula's arena

Pula’s arena

That can be anywhere from a former torture chamber of the Inquisition in Cartagena to the gorgeous Piazza Grande in Locarno.

This week I had the chance to see why the Pula Film Festival in Croatia comes with the tagline ‘Film Under The Stars’ as I saw several nights of films in the Pula Arena, a gorgeous Roman amphitheatre by the sea.

For this cityslicker who doesn’t get much stargazing opportunity in London, it was a chance to spot a few constellations during any slow scenes of a film — not to mention the wonderful distraction of looking around the 2000-year-old amphitheater.

It was also fantastic to experience 6,000 Croatian locals around me laughing heartily — even if I didn’t get all the subtleties of local humour.