“We were delighted by the response from the audience and the fact that the film transcends any language barriers, which is also evident from the positive reviews that were published immediately after the premiere. It’s wonderful to share the film with a world audience, but after Rotterdam, we have an even more important event coming up – the Croatian premiere at Art Cinema Croatia in Rijeka, on Saturday, 8 February”, said Fiume o Morte! producers Tibor Keser and Vanja Jambrović on the occasion of the Rotterdam IFF world premiere.

Screening at the Pathé cinema in Rotterdam, the film was presented to the audience by the film crew headed up by director Igor Bezinović, producers Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser (Restart), co-producers Marina Gumzi (Nosorogi, Slovenia) and Erica Barbiani (Videomante, Italy). Also present were director of photography Gregor Božič, editor Hrvoslava Brkušić, costume designers Tajči Čekada and Manuela Paladin and others. The CEO of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Chris Marcich, also attended the premiere.

The early reviews of the film are already out and available for perusing on the following links: icsfilm.org, thefilmverdict.com, Overly Honest Reviews, stylefeelfree.com. 

The documentary-fictional feature thematises the historical event from about a hundred years ago in which Italian poet and war advocate Gabriele D’Annunzio captured the city of Rijeka.

The award-winning filmmaker Igor Bezinović, winner of the 2017 Grand Golden Arena for his fiction feature A Brief Excursion (also screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as the part of the Bright Future side programme), in his latest title creatively examines the consequences of the occupation for the city and its inhabitants. In search of answers, the director recruits the residents of Rijeka, which the Italians call Fiume, who recount, reconstruct and reinterpret the bizarre tale of the 16-month occupation of their city in 1919 by Italian poet, dandy and war supporter Gabriele D’Annunzio.

The film is a Restart production, with producers Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser, in co-production with houses Nosorogi from Slovenia (co-producer Marina Gumzi) and Videomante from Italy (co-produce Erica Barbiani).

After the world premiere in Rotterdam, the Croatian premiere of the film will take place in Rijeka, on 8 February (Art kino Croatia), in Zagreb on 13 February (cinema Kinoteka), followed by theatrical screenings across the country.

Cover photographs: Fiume o Morte! film crew together with HAVC CEO, Chris Marcich; Fiume o Morte! film crew
(Photos courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam)

Other Croatian titles in Rotterdam

As announced earlier, two Croatian minority co-productions are also set to premiere in the main competition. These are Ivan Salatić’s Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master (Croatian co-producer is Tena Gojić of Dinaridi Film) and Wind, Talk to Me of Stefan Đorđević (Croatian co-producer is again Vanja Jambrović of Restart).

The short experimental documentary The Rain Will Weep directed by Damir Čučić had its world premiere on Friday, 31 January. The film is a compilation of 3,500 videos that the author received from friends and acquaintances on social networks during the global pandemic, showing a world in a state of chaos that is sometimes violent, often very funny, but mostly absurd. The film is produced by the company Sve gore i gore, with producer Jelena Duh. The Rain Will Weep is part of the Short & Mid-Length program section.

The same section also features Stefan Ivančić’s fiction short Upon Sunrise, which will also have its world premiere at the festival. The film was produced by Čarna Vučinić for Non-Aligned Films from Serbia, in cooperation with Volta Producción from Spain, Staragara Productions from Slovenia, and Antitalent from Croatia.

As part of the Harbor section, the audience will get a chance to see the feature-length documentary Wishing on a Star by Slovak director Péter Kerekes and Croatian co-producers Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser (Restart).

The Rotterdam audience can also catch the freshly digitally restored Croatian 1967 classic, Kaja, I'll Kill You! directed by Vatroslav Mimica. The film is showcased in the program Cinema Regained dedicated to cinema classics and the research of world film heritage.

The Rotterdam International Film Festival is one of the biggest and most influential film festivals attracting tens of thousands of industry professionals and visitors every year, as well as dictates future trends and discovering up-and-coming filmmakers. The director of the festival since 2020 is Vanja Kaluđerčić from Pula, while one of the selectors of the short film programme this year was Croatian filmmaker Ivan Ramljak.