On 12 September 1919, a troop of some three hundred soldiers under the leadership of the flamboyant war loving Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio swooped into the Northern-Adriatic port town of Fiume, now Rijeka, wanting to annex the city to Italy. Over the course of the next 16 months, during what is regarded as one of the most bizarre militant sieges of all time his official photography team captured over 10,000 images.
A century later, Rijeka-born filmmaker Igor Bezinović, along with some three hundred citizens, orchestrates a direct-action history lesson focused on the siege and its modern-day implications. The communal undertaking in historical empowerment not only revisits both facts and legends but also puts forward a social counterweight to D’Annunzio’s occupational agenda.
The result is a brutally factual yet defiantly punk cinematic journey, deadly serious yet hilariously surreal. It critically examines the tactics of performance, manipulation and propaganda employed during the siege and transgresses them to create a wild ride directly into the heart of chaos. An invitation to dare create new viewpoints, narratives, and experiences, it uncovers nationalist historiographies as effective and obstinate ideological instruments, no matter how absurd or ridiculous.
Fiume o morte! is a film on poetry, dynamite, cocaine, machine guns, football, airplanes, furniture flying out of windows, concerts, prisons, sunbathing, thousands of soldiers, millions of bullets, endless speeches, a platypus and on the power of political performativity. D’Annunzio might as well be considered its trailblazer heralding some of the biggest masters of ghastly political showmanship of our age.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
World Premiere: International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025 – Tiger Competition
PRESS
Reviews: Variety – Acquisition Announcement
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Igor Bezinović
Igor Bezinović is a filmmaker born in Rijeka, which is now part of Croatia, but at that time belonged to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, before that partly the Kingdom of Italy and partly the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (and before that the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), before that the Free State of Fiume, before that the Italian Regency of Carnaro, before that Austria-Hungary…
His films include The Blockade (Oktavijan prize for best Croatian documentary in 2012), Veruda (Oktavijan prize for best Croatian documentary in 2015) and A Brief Excursion (Big Golden Arena prize for best Croatian feature in 2017), along with many shorts of all shapes and sizes. His work has been shown internationally at events including IFF Rotterdam, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, CPH:DOX, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Venice Biennale of Architecture (with Hrvoslava Brkušić for Pulska grupa), Museum of the Moving Image and the Guanajuato IFF.
He graduated in film directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and in Philosophy, Sociology and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He is a member of The Croatian Film Directors’ Guild and the judo club Black Belt.
Filmography (selection)
FEATURES
Fiume o morte! (2025)
A Brief Excursion (2017)
The Blockade (2012)
SELECTED SHORTS
Microcassette: The Smallest Cassette I’ve Ever Seen (2020)
Postcards (2018)
The Lovetts (2018)
A Short Family Film (2016)
Veruda – A Film About Bojan (2015)
From Kršan to Peroj (2015)
A Very Brief Excursion (2014)
Waiting (2014)
Unmediated Democracy Demands Unmediated Space (2012)
Self-Governed Film (2012)
Naked Hours (2011)
In Fond Memory of TDZ (2010)
An Encounter (2009)
Non-Recyclable (2009)
Above-Average (2009)
CREDITS
Scriptwriter and director Igor Bezinović
Director of photography Gregor Božič
Editor Hrvoslava Brkušić
Composers Giovanni Maier, Hrvoje Nikšić
Sound recording Ana Jurčić, Andrea Blasetig
Sound design Eric Guerrino Nardin
Producers Vanja Jambrović, Tibor Keser
Production company Restart
Co-producers Erica Barbiani, Marina Gumzi
Co-production Videomante, NOSOROGI
Casting director and manager Sara Jakupec
Associate producer Oliver Sertić
APPEARING
As Gabriele D’Annunzio:
Izet Medošević
Ćenan Beljulji
Albano Vučetić
Tihomir Buterin
Andrea Marsanich
Massimo Ronzani
Milovan Večerina Cico
Narrated by:
Igor Bezinović
Renzo Chiepolo
Silvana Zorich
Noemi Dessardo
Sandro Ferletta
Lovro Mirth
Andrea Marsanich
Sara Marsanich
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Hrvatski audiovizualni centar
Eurimages
Ministero della cultura – Direzione Generale Cinema e audiovisivo
Fondo per l’Audiovisivo del Friuli Venezia Giulia
Slovenski filmski center
Filmski studio Viba Film Ljubljana
Media Programme of the European Commission
Hrvatska radiotelevizija
RTV Slovenija
RE-ACT Co-Development Funding Scheme
Grad Rijeka
Grad Zagreb
Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission
ANGOA – PROCIREP
Društvo hrvatskih filmskih redatelja
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Vanja Jambrović
Vanja Jambrović graduated in comparative literature and philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, and in production at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. As a producer and co-producer, she stands behind many documentaries and hybrid films. The films produced by Vanja have won over 150 awards at international film festivals, two times have been selected for European Film Awards (“Sbenka” 2019 and “Valerija” 2024). Nebojša Slijepčević’s “Srbenka” won a total of 23 awards at film festivals, including the Doc Allianze Award given by the Association of European Documentary Festivals. Her films won Heart of Sarajevo for best documentary three times (“Srbenka” 2018, “Museum of the Revolution” 2022 and “Valerija” 2024). Vanja’s projects are funded by many international institutions and funds, including the Sundance Institute (“Museum of the Revolution” by Srdjan Keca). She has participated in international workshops for film producers REACT (2017), EAVE (2015), Producer on the Move in Cannes (2014), Emerging Producer in Jihlava (2012) and Eurodoc (2010). She has been teaching two courses at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb and since 2022 Vanja is working as mentor at the international workshop for development of documentary projects “Documentary Campus Masterschool” from Germany. She has been involved as a guest lecturer at international documentary workshops Ex Oriente, BDC Discoveries and Circle Women Doc Accelerator.
Tibor Keser
Tibor Keser graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb and then studied Production at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb, with which he has been collaborating since 2019 as a title assistant at the Department of Production. So far, he has participated in the production of more than 40 award-winning films of all lengths, shapes and genres – feature films, documentaries, experimental, hybrid, TV series, commercial and music videos. He has been collaborating with Restart since 2014 as a producer, co-producer or executive producer, dealing mostly with documentaries. So far, he has participated in numerous professional educations such as: 7. Sarajevo Talent Campus in 2013, EURODOC in 2015, Berlinale Talents in 2016, IFF Ji.Hlava Emerging Producers in 2017 and EAVE in 2019 as a scholarship holder and winner of the MDM award – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung at the Sarajevo Film Festival 2018.
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Restart is an organization focused on production, education, distribution and exhibition of creative documentary films. Restart was founded in 2007. Our films were screened at more than 350 international film festivals such as: Locarno Festival, IDFA, Hot Docs, Karlovy Vary IFF, International Film Festival Rotterdam, FID Marseille, Zurich Film Festival, DOK Leipzig, Mar del Plata, Jihlava IDFF and others …
Restart runs several film projects – documentary and fiction film production, distribution of documentary films, a documentary cinema and an educational program in documentary film.
Restart
Croatia
vanja@restarted.hr
+385(0) 91 89 30 675
http://restarted.hr
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
VIDEOMANTE
Erica Barbiani
info@videomante.it
Cividale del Friuli (UD) Italy
https://www.videomante.it
NOSOROGI
Marina Gumzi
marina@nosorogi.com
1 Trg prekomorskih brigad, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
https://www.nosorogi.com
