The fourth edition of Jesi’s Latitudini festival will open on 15 July with an evening devoted to Indonesian author Intan Paramaditha and her novel 'La notte dei mille inferi'. The free public event is scheduled for 9:30 pm in the Cortile di Palazzo della Signoria in Jesi, where Paramaditha will be in conversation with Ana Vukadin.
According to the Biblioteca Planettiana event listing and the festival announcement in the city newsletter, Latitudini will unfold over several months and is framed around the theme of “Radici, presenti e future” — roots, present and future. The July programme is set to move “prima in Asia,” with particular attention to Indonesia and India, through meetings with Paramaditha and writer-podcaster Matteo Miavaldi, before turning to a separate session focused on Joyce Lussu’s translations of international poetry in a new edition curated by Giorgia Gabbolini.
The opening event places Paramaditha’s book at the centre of the festival’s first discussion. The novel’s plot, as provided by the host institution, begins in a grandmother’s house on the edge of Sumatra, where three sisters — Mutiara, Maya and Annisa — explore a space filled with mystery, blackened cooking pots, old photographs and a forbidden well. In the story’s supernatural register, the spirit of the kuntilanak, a woman in white who cannot rest, haunts the house, while their grandmother Victoria, described as “la donna tigre,” delivers a prophecy that shapes the sisters’ different futures.
The description presented by Biblioteca Planettiana points to a narrative that combines Gothic atmosphere with family history, tragedy and transformation. As the sisters grow up and are reunited by a tragedy, the novel opens onto a world of ghosts, spells to be broken and revolutions to be sparked. The institution’s summary also notes echoes of colonial history and a layered idea of femininity, with the action moving between the province of Lampung, Jakarta and New York.
The event is part of Jesi Cultur@Musei e Biblioteca’s summer programming, and the festival itself is a municipal initiative connected to the wider Jesi Estate 2026 calendar. The source material identifies the venue specifically as Palazzo della Signoria, and the conversation is listed as an in-person encounter with the writer rather than a performance or exhibition. No admission charge is required; the event is open to the public.
Biblioteca Planettiana’s listing dates the meeting from 15 July 2026 at 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm. Alongside the opening night with Paramaditha, the July line-up for Latitudini includes a later session on 16 July dedicated to 'Joyce Lussu. Poesia senza frontiere' and another on 18 July with Matteo Miavaldi and 'Un'altra idea dell'India', all continuing the festival’s stated focus on roots, present and future. The first of those conversations will take place in the same Cortile di Palazzo della Signoria in Jesi.
