Fiume o Morte!
Directed by Igor Bezinović, 2025
Fiume o Morte (“Fiume or demise”) was the slogan of Gabriele D’Annunzio, the flamboyant Italian poet, nationalist and struggle hero whose cult of persona helped propel him to guide the occupation of the Adriatic port metropolis of Fiume (now Rijeka) in 1919. Igor Bezinović’s documentary Fiume o Morte revisits this politically charged interval via an creative mix of reenactment, road interviews, and archival materials. Removed from a standard historic documentary, it’s vivid, irreverent, and ceaselessly very humorous, utilizing humour to disarm the viewer whereas encouraging reflection on the development of fantasy, nationalism, and historical past. As Michael Ledeen noticed, “[a]n evaluation of D’Annunzian Fiume goes a great distance towards accounting for a lot of the puzzling political behaviour that has characterised Western society ever for the reason that Nice Warfare” (Leeden, 1977, vii). The movie embraces absurdity as a crucial instrument, drawing consideration to the theatrical and performative nature of political energy. Its reception has differed sharply — whereas attracting little consideration in Italy, it has been praised in Croatia and chosen because the nation’s submission for the 2025 Academy Award for Finest Documentary. This distinction already highlights one of many movie’s central themes — that historical past is settled however contested, claimed and resisted throughout borders and generations.
The historic occasions on the coronary heart of the movie are advanced. The 1919 Paris Peace Convention positioned the strategically important Fiume throughout the newly fashioned Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). Italian nationalists opposed the choice, and a gaggle of disaffected elite Arditi troopers, refusing demobilisation, invited D’Annunzio to guide an armed expedition to grab Fiume in defiance of worldwide diplomacy and the Italian authorities (Leeden, 1977). Initially welcomed by a lot of the Italian-speaking inhabitants, D’Annunzio quickly imposed an more and more authoritarian regime. He launched a strict however usually weird code of conduct for his troops that demanded excellence in the whole lot from operating and tree-climbing to imitating people and animals — reenacted within the movie with deadpan humour that exposes the absurdity of militant spectacle. He focused non-Italian companies and establishments, promoted racist hostility towards Slavic communities, and framed politics in starkly exclusionary phrases that demanded absolute loyalty, reflecting a worldview steeped in cultural chauvinism and rising fascist tendencies.
In December 1919, the Italian authorities proposed a modus vivendi to resolve the Fiume query, which might recognise town’s want for annexation, following earlier makes an attempt to finish the standoff via a naval blockade of the port. Though D’Annunzio initially accepted the thought, he urged the inhabitants to reject it. A vote was organised, however when it grew to become clear that assist for his place was restricted, he despatched troops to disrupt the poll and nullified the outcome on the grounds of the violence he had orchestrated. The documentary reconstructs this second, noting that no pictures of the disruption survive regardless of the regime’s personal Images Part. The filmmakers restage the scene utilizing actors and newly created nonetheless photographs, drawing consideration to the gaps and manipulations of the historic report.
The disaster escalated in September 1920 when D’Annunzio proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro and launched the Constitution of Carnaro as its structure. Co-written with the syndicalist Alceste De Ambris, the constitution blended radical social provisions (common suffrage, employees’ councils and protections for girls) with a celebration of struggle as an ethical necessity and a strict hierarchy of citizenship. The occupation reached its violent climax throughout “Bloody Christmas” in December 1920, when D’Annunzio declared struggle on Italy, prompting an assault by the Royal Italian Military. The movie depicts this phrase in a stark tonal shift with close-ups of actors mendacity immobile to symbolise the twenty-two killed. The grim stillness contrasts sharply with earlier absurdity, underscoring the deadly endpoint of performative politics. These occasions mix to disclose the proto-fascist character of the Fiume experiment, admired by Mussolini and foreshadowing many parts of later fascist rule (Leeden, 1977).
Bezinović’s strategy to retelling this historical past is creative. Native residents of Rijeka painting troopers, officers, and D’Annunzio himself, bringing private narratives to the reenactments. In a single scene, a musician performs D’Annunzio in a dispute with an Italian common earlier than becoming a member of his rock band to greet the vans representing the arrival of troopers’ autos. The filmmaking course of is intentionally seen, incorporating casting conversations, improvised strains and unscripted road encounters. Archival pictures are juxtaposed with recreated photographs. In a single memorable sequence, {a photograph} of a gaggle of troopers sitting on the docks is adopted by a contemporary model of the identical pose, besides the actors are targeted on their telephones. The impact is each comical and revealing, highlighting the banality underlying heroic historic narratives.
Humour can be used to interrogate political charisma. In a single scene, a Rijeka resident reenacts D’Annunzio’s well-known balcony speech (later imitated by Mussolini, together with the Roman salute) with a handful of clapping supporters subsequent to him. The digital camera pulls again to disclose an in any other case empty road earlier than reducing to an archival picture of the unique speech delivered to a crowd-filled road. These cautious visible contrasts make seen the mechanics of spectacle and present how authority is constructed, rehearsed, and amplified by visible framing. Such humour, which dangers trivialising historical past, capabilities right here largely as crucial engagement. By exposing the theatrical nature of political authority and puncturing the solemnity that usually surrounds nationalist fantasy, the movie makes use of humour in a means that aligns with Simon Critchley’s (2002) account of humour as an moral mode of resistance that challenges unearned reverence and disrupts the efficiency of energy with out falling into cynicism.
Though targeted on the political mythology surrounding D’Annunzio, the movie additionally gestures (albeit flippantly) in direction of the social dynamics of occupation. Ladies usually seem in supporting or fleeting roles, together with as one of many narrators and a lodge employee tending to a feverish D’Annunzio. These roles, restricted in scope however notable in presence, recommend a acutely aware effort to incorporate girls in a story area the place they’re usually neglected. Bezinović doesn’t try to revise historical past by artificially elevating these characters, however as an alternative subtly attracts consideration to the gendered silences in nationalist histories, the place girls are ceaselessly positioned on the margins of political motion (Yuval-Davis, 1997). These transient appearances additionally trace on the social realities behind the heroic fantasy — the on a regular basis labour, care and survival that sit beneath army spectacle.
Essentially the most incisive achievement of Fiume o Morte lies in its critique of nationalist myth-making. Relatively than condemning D’Annunzio via moralism, Bezinović makes use of irony to deflate the self-mythologising that has lengthy surrounded him. By revealing the staged nature of his politics — his balcony speeches, grandiose declarations and theatricalised public rituals — it exhibits that nationalist myths are usually not solely ideological however aesthetic constructions (Falasca-Zamponi, 1997). The movie’s consideration to native language and identities, significantly the Fiuman-speaking group and their understanding of the occupation, highlights how cultural id shapes historic interpretation. Filmed on location in Rijeka at former websites of occupation, it creates a dialogue between previous and current, resisting any single, authoritative historic narrative. The usage of native actors and dialects foregrounds the plurality of reminiscence, exhibiting how historical past is repeatedly negotiated relatively than settled. On this sense, the movie challenges nationalist nostalgia, not by dismantling it in summary phrases, however by exposing the a number of, usually conflicting meanings Fiume nonetheless holds for individuals who reside there.
Fiume o Morte succeeds as a result of it balances humour with historic perception, participation with critique, and spectacle with reflection. Its hybrid format — re-enactments, archival pictures, interviews, and oral narration — illuminates the entanglements of nationalism, collective reminiscence, and fantasy, whereas demonstrating how odd folks change into actors in historic occasions which may in any other case appear distant or summary. The movie additionally confronts the unresolved legacies of Fiume and of D’Annunzio himself. He was nonetheless rewarded with the title of Prince of Montenevoso by the Italian state, and monuments to him nonetheless stand in Italy, reflecting a contested reminiscence that continues to divide opinion. By combining laughter with evaluation, the movie invitations audiences to have interaction critically with the politics of reminiscence. For students and college students of European historical past, nationalism, political fantasy, reminiscence, visible politics and efficiency, in addition to common audiences, Fiume o Morte gives an creative, witty, and considerate exploration of a historic episode whose political and cultural legacies proceed to impress debate at present.
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