Fiume o morte! — Rijeka, D’Annunzio and the 1919 occupation ^{CEFR B2}

Igor Bezinović’s Fiume o morte! is a hybrid documentary that examines Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 1919 occupation of Rijeka and the political theatre that grew around it. A co‑production of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia, the film draws on archival material to explore how performative spectacle and myth helped shape early forms of fascism.

The director assembles more than 10,000 archival photographs and hundreds of film recordings and employs roughly 100 non‑professional actors and extras to dramatize events from 1919 to 1921. The film concentrates on the sixteen months after the First World War when D’Annunzio entered Rijeka on September 11, 1919 and proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro. It records the November 1920 agreement assigning Rijeka to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the subsequent pressure by Italian forces that led legionnaires to leave on January 5, 1921; D’Annunzio left about two weeks later.

The film treats D’Annunzio as a forerunner of Italian fascism and documents his revival of the Roman salute, the arrival of more than 5,000 young Italians in a city of some 30,000 inhabitants, and violent episodes including the killing of around 10 Vietnamese soldiers who served with the Allied Entente. It also mentions brief visits by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Benito Mussolini.

Fiume o morte! won wide recognition in 2025, taking 30 awards such as the European Film Academy prize for best documentary, the Tiger Award and the FIPRESCI Prize at Rotterdam, plus six Golden Arena Awards at Pula. Bezinović frames the occupation as political theatre rather than conventional government and the film argues that spectacle, ritual and myth can make extremist politics seem powerful and attractive.