Fiume o Morte!

Igor Bezinovic's 2025 film recounts an event from 1919: the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio occupying the city of Rijeka with an armed group and running it for sixteen months. That period is regarded as an early trial of protofascist politics. The film combines documentary with reconstruction. People living in Rijeka today play D'Annunzio and the figures of the period; the same people also describe the event on camera in their own words. Who is playing which role keeps changing. The method brings humour without lightening the subject. D'Annunzio's gestures, uniforms and balcony speeches look ridiculous now; the film reminds you that this was precisely the rehearsal for what was taken seriously in the decades that followed. It won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam. Who it's for: those interested in hybrid documentary and the early history of fascism. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a straightforward historical account; the film keeps breaking its own form and taking itself as a subject.