A playful and witty reconstruction of an unusual episode in the history of the river, when in 1919 it was occupied by the notorious poet and proto-fascist Gabriele d'annunzio for a good year. Winner of the main prize at the Rotterdam Festival and an unexpected hit of Croatian independent cinemas.
The Outstanding Feature-Documentary Film by the Croatian screenwriter and director Igor Bezinovi 6 (Winner of the Great Golden Arena at the Pula Film Festival for the debut Short Trip , 2017) describes the events of 1919, when the eccentric Italian poet, dandy 6 and war preacher Gabriele d'annunzio marched into the city of Fiume (now the Croatian River) in order to subjugate it. Under the leadership of Bezinovi alternative, who worked on the project for more than a decade, the inhabitants of modern Rijeka, in a factographically accurate, but at the same time pankovo provocative, frighteningly topical, but nevertheless extremely entertaining film experiment, embark on the reconstruction and reinterpretation of this bizarre story of the 16-month occupation of their city.
Story
In 1919, the eccentric Italian poet, dandfample and passionate militarist Gabriele d'annunzio, dissatisfied with the decision of the Paris Peace Conference to assign Fiume – today's River – to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, declared the city an independent state on his own. The sixteen-month occupation that followed is considered one of the most bizarre experiments in the entire history of political rule ... the River-born film director Igor Bezinovi / a little over a century later invites fellow citizens to recreate and reinterpret this unusual chapter in the history of his city together with him.
Fiume O morte! it is a film about poetry, dynamite, cocaine, machine guns, football, airplanes, furniture flying through windows, concerts, prisons, sunbathing, thousands of soldiers, millions of bullets, endless speeches, a platypus, and the power of political performativity. D'annunzio could also be considered its originator, the forerunner of some of the greatest masters of political showmanship of our era.
Festivals, awards
Rotterdam (Best Film in the Tiger section and the FIPRESCI Prize); FDF Ljubljana; CPH:Do/Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Do / Dok.fest m Animnchen; Cinema Island
Criticism
"Fiume o morte! he is direct, bold and very funny. The Film /.../ brings a very topical message that laughter at the expense of fascists is a form of rebellion /.../. This is a wonderfully punk version of a historical documentary, imbued with humor and the rebellious spirit of people who were in the 20s. in the XIX century, citizens of ‘eight or nine different countries’, spoke different languages, but still managed to maintain their own recognizable identity.«
– Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
"Many filmmakers have too much confidence in their ability to portray ways of life that are far from their own experiences. This blind self-consciousness is especially evident when describing distant history, where imagination inevitably leads to fabrications. The Croatian director Igor Bezinovi is in the film Fiume O morte! he bravely and brilliantly copes with the mentioned problem by showing his process. He intertwines non-fiction elements with fictionalized historical events and, by revealing the backstage of these stagings, turns the film into a documentary about his own making.«
- Richard Brod / The NE / The Times
"Bezinovi / Fiume O morte! it fills with small playfulness and meaningful details, which even the attentive viewer may escape at the first viewing, but since the experience of watching the film – both because of the extensively researched and thoughtfully selected archival material, which treats the topic of the film with the seriousness that befits it, and because of the simultaneous humorous atmosphere – is a single film pleasure, a re-viewing seems simply necessary.«
- Petra Meterc, Screen
"In our country, which has not yet managed to come to terms with the atrocities of fascism in Yugoslavia, Fiume o morte should! serve as a reminder. They're still here, between us, says a woman in the movie. Except we don't know who they are.«
- Giampiero Raganelli, Moduinlan
"In a duet between filmmaking and history, where the Alutions of Anderson, Straub-Huillet and Kiarostami's grand plan meet , bezinovi's novel accurately recreates the strange, bloody era of the river, while reflecting contemporary fears of fascism.«
- Ne / No / No / No / No / No / No / No / No / No / No /
"Bezinovi / <url> masterfully uses playful insolence to turn rigorous research work into a living example of solidarity in action. / ... / Deserved tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival.«
< Br > Carmen GRA/, Sight and Sound
"The result is a fascinating collage of historical images and their reenactments, vibrating to the rhythms of great music and authentic human energy. Like fascism, which raises its head again everywhere, there lives the resistance of hardy people who have already overcome it once and are capable of it again and again, if only they get a voice and enter the stage of history. Where forms of rebellion have failed that have been taken extremely seriously, too seriously perhaps, the answer may be the folk, human carnival spirit. And these branches from Bezinovi's Documentary at every turn. Until it actually grows into a carnival, a city holiday that celebrates itself instead of some self-proclaimed important person. And make no mistake, with all of the above, the film is by no means lacking in serious historical analysis, except that it is packaged in a living, authentic whole. One that is not another dry study or an unconvincing moral converted to audio and video format. Fiume O morte! it is the Croatian Culloden, a film that turns history upside down, or rather: back to the right place, by tearing it out of dominant narratives and seemingly objective historiographical stories, and bringing it back to the people.«
- Ziga Brdnik, Radio Slovenia
"Fascism was reborn after the opening stalemate and parliamentary defeat precisely in Trieste and on the River, Where D'annunzio showed how it was done. And Bezinovi's article, which does not deal with D'annunzi's art (aestheticization of violence is part of fascism anyway), suggests that d'annunzi's proto – fascism survived not only in fan rituals, bakladas, exclamations, fanaticism and the cult of adherence to football clubs, but also in how many little people – Riverans, Italians, even the former commander of the Croatian independents-want to play D'annunzio. ZA+"
- Marcel Stefancic, Jr., Youth
Portrait of the author
Igor Bezinovi Mod (born in 1983 on Rijeka) graduated in Philosophy, Sociology and Comparative Literature from the University of Zagreb and in film and television direction from the Zagreb academy of Dramatic Arts. His feature-length debut block (2012) won the Octavian award for best Croatian documentary film, and The Short Trip (2017), premiered in Rotterdam, won the Golden arena for best Croatian feature film.
The screening of the film will be followed by a gathering over tea and cakes.
Igriva in duhovita rekonstrukcija nenavadne epizode v zgodovini Reke, ko jo je leta 1919 za dobro leto zasedel razvpiti poet in protofašist Gabriele D’Annunzio. Dobitnik glavne nagrade na festivalu v Rotterdamu in nepričakovani hit hrvaških neodvisnih kinematografov.
Izjemen igrano-dokumentarni film hrvaškega scenarista in režiserja Igorja Bezinovića (dobitnik velike zlate arene na Puljskem filmskem festivalu za prvenec Kratki izlet , 2017) opisuje dogajanje leta 1919, ko je ekscentrični italijanski pesnik, dandy in vojni pridigar Gabriele D’Annunzio vkorakal v mesto Fiume (danes hrvaška Reka), da bi si ga podredil. Pod vodstvom Bezinovića, ki je na projektu delal več kot desetletje, se prebivalci sodobne Reke v faktografsko natančnem, obenem pa pankovsko provokativnem, strašljivo aktualnem, kljub temu pa tudi izjemno zabavnem filmskem eksperimentu lotijo rekonstrukcije in reinterpretacije te bizarne zgodbo o 16-mesečni okupaciji svojega mesta.
Zgodba
Leta 1919 je ekscentrični italijanski pesnik, dandy in strastni militarist Gabriele D’Annunzio, nezadovoljen z odločitvijo pariške mirovne konference, da se Fiume – današnja Reka – dodeli Kraljevini Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev, mesto na lastno roko razglasil za neodvisno državo. Šestnajstmesečna okupacija, ki je sledila, velja za enega najbolj bizarnih eksperimentov v vsej zgodovini političnega vladanja … V Reki rojeni filmski režiser Igor Bezinović nekaj več kot stoletje pozneje povabi someščane, da skupaj z njim poustvarijo in na novo interpretirajo to nenavadno poglavje v zgodovini svojega mesta.
Fiume o morte! je film o poeziji, dinamitu, kokainu, strojnicah, nogometu, letalih, pohištvu, ki leti skozi okna, koncertih, zaporih, sončenju, tisočih vojakov, milijonih nabojev, neskončnih govorih, kljunašu in moči politične performativnosti. D’Annunzio bi lahko veljal tudi za njenega začetnika, predhodnika nekaterih največjih mojstrov političnega nastopaštva naše dobe.
Festivali, nagrade
Rotterdam (najboljši film v sekciji Tiger in nagrada FIPRESCI); FDF Ljubljana; CPH:DOX; New Directors/New Films; Crossing Europe; DOK.fest München; Kino Otok
Kritike
» Fiume o morte! je neposreden, drzen in zelo smešen. Film /…/ prinaša nadvse aktualno sporočilo, da je smeh na račun fašistov oblika upora /…/. To je čudovito punkovska različica zgodovinskega dokumentarca, prežeta s humorjem in uporniškim duhom ljudi, ki so bili v 20. stoletju državljani ‘osmih ali devetih različnih držav’, govorili različne jezike, a jim je vseeno uspelo ohraniti lastno prepoznavno identiteto.«
– Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
»Mnogi filmski ustvarjalci preveč zaupajo v svojo sposobnost prikazati načine življenja, ki so daleč od njihovih lastnih izkušenj. Ta slepa samozavest je še posebej očitna pri opisovanju daljne zgodovine, kjer domišljija neizogibno vodi k fabrikacijam. Hrvaški režiser Igor Bezinović se v filmu Fiume o morte! z omenjeno težavo pogumno in briljantno spopade tako, da pokaže svoj proces. Nefikcijske prvine preplete s fikcionaliziranimi zgodovinskimi dogodki in z razkritjem zakulisja teh uprizoritev film spremeni v dokumentarec o lastnem nastajanju.«
– Richard Brody, The New York Times
»Bezinović Fiume o morte! zapolni z drobnimi igrivostmi in pomenljivimi detajli, ki tudi pozornemu gledalcu morda ob prvem gledanju uidejo, a ker je izkušnja gledanja filma – tako zaradi obsežno raziskanega in premišljeno izbranega arhivskega gradiva, ki temo filma obravnava z resnostjo, kakršna ji pritiče, kot zaradi hkratnega humornega vzdušja – en sam filmski užitek, se ponoven ogled zdi preprosto nujen.«
– Petra Meterc, Ekran
»V naši državi, ki se še ni uspela sprijazniti z grozodejstvi fašizma v Jugoslaviji, bi moral Fiume o morte! služiti kot opomin. Še vedno so tu, med nami, pravi neka ženska v filmu. Le da ne vemo, kdo so.«
– Giampiero Raganelli, Quinlan
»Bezinović v duetu med filmskim ustvarjanjem in zgodovino, kjer se srečajo Wes Anderson, Straub-Huillet in Kiarostamijev Veliki plan , natančno poustvari čudno, krvavo obdobje Reke, hkrati pa odseva sodobne strahove pred fašizmom.«
– New Directors/New Films
»Bezinović mojstrsko izkoristi igrivo predrznost, da bi rigorozno raziskovalno delo spremenil v živ primer solidarnosti v akciji. /…/ Zaslužena nagrada tiger na rotterdamskem filmskem festivalu.«
– Carmen Gray, Sight and Sound
»Rezultat je fascinanten kolaž zgodovinskih podob in njihovih ponovnih uprizoritev, ki vibrira v ritmih odlične glasbe in pristne človeške energije. Tako kot fašizem, ki povsod ponovno dviga glavo, živi tudi odpor trdoživih ljudi, ki so ga enkrat že premagali in so ga zmožni vedno znova, če le dobijo glas in stopijo na oder zgodovine. Kjer so odpovedale oblike upora, ki so se jemale skrajno resno, preresno morda, je mogoče odgovor ljudski, človeški karnevalski duh. In ta veje iz Bezinovićevega dokumentarca na vsakem koraku. Dokler dejansko ne preraste v karneval, praznik mesta, ki slavi samo sebe namesto kakšnega samooklicanega pomembneža. In da ne bo pomote, filmu ob vsem naštetem nikakor ne manjka resne zgodovinske analize, le da je ta zapakirana v živo, pristno celoto. Takšno, ki ni še ena suhoparna študija ali neprepričljiva moralka, pretvorjena v avdio in video format. Fiume o morte! je hrvaški Culloden , film, ki zgodovino obrne na glavo, oziroma bolje rečeno: nazaj na pravo mesto, tako da jo iztrga dominantnim pripovedim in navidezno objektivnim zgodovinopisnim zgodbam, ter jo vrne nazaj ljudem.«
– Žiga Brdnik, Radio Slovenija
»Fašizem se je po uvodnem zastoju in parlamentarnem porazu preporodil prav v Trstu in na Reki, kjer je D’Annunzio pokazal, kako se to počne. In Bezinović, ki se z D’Annunzijevo umetnostjo ne ukvarja (estetizacija nasilja je itak del fašizma), namiguje, da je d’annunzijevski protofašizem preživel ne le v navijaških obredih, bakladah, vzklikanjih, fanatizmu in kultu privrženosti nogometnim klubom, temveč tudi v tem, koliko malih ljudi – Rečanov, Italijanov, celo nekdanji poveljnik hrvaških osamosvojiteljev – hoče igrati D’Annunzia. ZA+«
– Marcel Štefančič, jr., Mladina
Portret avtorja
Igor Bezinović (rojen leta 1983 na Reki) je diplomiral iz filozofije, sociologije in primerjalne književnosti na Univerzi v Zagrebu ter iz filmske in televizijske režije na zagrebški Akademiji dramskih umetnosti. Njegov celovečerni prvenec Blokada (2012) je prejel nagrado oktavijan za najboljši hrvaški dokumentarni film, Kratki izlet (2017), premierno prikazan v Rotterdamu, pa zlato areno za najboljši hrvaški celovečerec.
Projekciji filma bo sledilo druženje ob čaju in pecivu.