Fiume o Morte!

A hybrid film about Gabriele D’Annunzio, the Italian poet and warrior who seized Fiume (today Rijeka) in 1919 and ruled with an iron fist. The film weaves together archival footage, interviews, and dramatic reconstructions, recreating Rijeka’s bloody era, examining D’Annunzio’s ultranationalism, and reflecting on how history shapes contemporary society.

The past comes alive and facts intertwine with fiction in this hybrid film about Italian poet-warrior Gabriele D’Annunzio. Outraged by the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference, D’Annunzio occupied the city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia) in 1919, initiating a 16-month occupation that became one of the most extraordinary political experiments of the 20th century. A model for Mussolini, he ruled the city with an iron hand, and his legacy is so strong that contemporary residents of Rijeka (engaged in a dynamic street montage) eagerly play the roles of his soldiers. The film meticulously reconstructs Rijeka’s strange and bloody era, combining archival footage, interviews, educational documentary segments, and dramatic reenactments. It creates a compelling portrait of D’Annunzio’s ultranationalist views and their influence on the present. Far from a conventional history lesson, it reflects on how the past shapes societies today and how extremist ideologies can survive in hiding. As one interviewee observes: “Unfortunately, they still exist today, we just don’t know who they are.”