Receding Danube reveals Nazi shipwreck, Venice announces politically charged selection

The same summer that is drying up Europe’s rivers is also giving back pieces of history buried for decades. The Danube’s water level has hit a historic low in front of the Djerdap II dam, near Prahovo, bringing to the surface the wreck of a German warship from the Second World War. The news, at this stage, comes from a single source — an AP report with photographs by Darko Vojinovic — with no further independent confirmation.

The phenomenon is not an isolated one: the prolonged heatwave that has hit Europe is bringing to light other wrecks hidden along the river’s course, as well as disrupting the operation of some nuclear power plants along its route. It is a case in which the ongoing climate crisis is, literally, making the continent’s submerged history visible.

In Venice, meanwhile, the International Critics’ Week has unveiled its selection for the 2026 edition, to be held from September 2 to 12 alongside the main festival. Organizers have described it as particularly political, a deliberately explicit choice.

A festival is not a neutral bubble — Organizers of the Venice Critics’ Week

The selection includes seven debut works from Italy, Colombia, Tunisia, Brazil, India and other countries, conceived as a showcase for new international filmmakers. Among the titles, the Colombian experimental documentary “The End of Times” stands out, blending archival footage with AI-generated material to address Latin America’s historical violence — a case in which, as with the Danube, the past resurfaces through new tools.

The two stories are not directly related, but they tell the same European August: on one side, a river giving back its secrets under the pressure of climate change; on the other, a festival that chooses to narrate, starting with the selection of its debut filmmakers, the historical and political tensions of the present.