“We were overjoyed by the mere fact of being selected to have our film screen at Rotterdam, but no one expected this sort of “slam dunk”! Winning the festival’s main prize, the independent critics’ prize, and also earning the highest score in audience votes – we are deeply touched by this achievement, especially since it’s the result of almost a decade of dedicated work. There is usually a whole army of people behind the scenes of a movie, and this holds especially true in this case! We are happy for the fact that the audience in Croatia, and especially the residents of Rijeka, will now have another great reason to share this success with us”, said the film’s producers Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser upon winning the award, and people of Croatia to support this success by watching the film in cinemas.

The festival’s main programme, the Tiger Competition, celebrates the innovative and adventurous spirit of up-and-coming filmmakers. The IFFR main jury, whose members included Yuki Aditya, Winnie Lau, Peter Strickland, and Andrea Luka Zimmerman, said in their statement:

“This is a film where people and public spaces are used as co-conspirators in exploring the past through the prism of contemporary Europe. At a time of the rise of ultra-nationalism within a contemporary European context, the film playfully grapples with the past not as a closed chapter, but as a living reality. While it is a playful and mischievous film, it presents a mirror to our present day. Recourse to ultra-nationalism, and even fascism, resides in the core of national identity, it is already inside of us as a form of knowledge we should be afraid to forget, and continuously need to process in order to forgo its grip. It is a reality we remember from movies, literature, billboards, and books. These are memories that travel as far as the history of a nation. So, we need to make history anew, again and again, to not only unforget, but beget the world we wish there was, for all of us.”

In addition to the Tiger Award, Fiume o Morte! also won the International Federation of Film Critics’ FIPRESCI Award. The statement of the jury, consisting of Garance Hayat, Hossein Eidizadeh, Ossama Abdelfattah Rezk, Piotr Czerkawski and Tim Lindemann, stated:

“We were impressed by the film’s playful use of archival footage and reenactment to shed light on a too-little-known episode of European history. Whilst full of dry, self-reflexive humour, the film manages to use its creative exploration of history to provide in-depth commentary on worrying contemporary political developments, specifically the rise of the global far-right. We applaud the film’s effortless combination of experimentation and accessibility – not least owing to its excellent editing – which serves to convey a timely warning against the formation of authoritarianism.”

Premiering in Rotterdam, the picture was presented 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, casting director Sara Jakupec and others. The CEO of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Chris Marcich, also attended the premiere.

Employing a highly innovative and original stylistic idiom, Fiume o Morte! tackles a fascinating and little-known historical episode from about a hundred years ago in which Italian poet and war advocate Gabriele D’Annunzio captured the city of Rijeka. The Croatian premiere will take place in Rijeka on Saturday, 8th February, while the Zagreb premiere will be held on 13th February at Cinema Kinoteka, followed by screenings in cinemas across the country.

Award-winning filmmaker Igor Bezinović, who previously won the 2017 Grand Golden Arena for his fiction feature A Brief Excursion (also screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of the Bright Future side programme), in his latest picture creatively examines the effects of the occupation on 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.

Igor Bezinović is the director of feature documentary Blockade (Oktavijan Award for Best Croatian Documentary in 2012), Veruda (Oktavijan Award for Best Croatian Documentary in 2015) and A Brief Excursion (Grand Golden Arena for Best Croatian Feature Film in 2017), as well as several shorts of different types and lengths. His work has been internationally screened at festivals and events such as IFF Rotterdam, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, CPH: DOX, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean, Venice Biennale of Architecture (with Hrvoslava Brkušić for the Pula Group), Museum of the Moving Image NY, Viennale, and Guanajuato IFF. He earned a degree in Film and TV Directing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, and another one in Philosophy, Sociology, and Comparative Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.