Fiume o Morte!

In 1919, the Italian poet, dandy, and glorifier of war Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied the city of Fiume. The citizens of Fiume (now Croatia's Rijeka) retell and reinterpret the 16-month occupation of their city, regarded as one of the most bizarre military sieges of all time. Incensed that the city — long part of the now-dissolved Austro-Hungarian Empire, would be ceded to the newly formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) despite its large Italian population — D’Annunzio gathered a few thousand troops and invaded, intending to annex the city to Italy. Italy wanted no part of this folly, and after 15 months, D’Annunzio and his forces retreated. A century later, Bezinovic recruits hundreds of Rijeka locals to recreate scenes from the siege on the streets and in the buildings where events occurred.FIUME O MORTE! depicts D’Annunzio as a vain, image-obsessed trailblazer of political showmanship (which should ring a bell or two), adapting the performative propaganda employed during the siege to create a descent into chaos that is shockingly prescient.