Gross sales firm Lightdox has boarded Igor Bezinović‘s hybrid documentary “Fiume o morte!,” which premieres within the Tiger Competitors part of the Worldwide Movie Competition Rotterdam.

The Croatian-Italian-Slovenian coproduction takes the viewers again to 1919, when the Italian nationalist poet, dandy and preacher of struggle Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied the town of Fiume.

“At the moment, the residents of Fiume, now known as Rijeka, retell and reinterpret the weird story in regards to the 16-month occupation of their metropolis in a brutally factual but defiantly punk cinematic journey,” an announcement explains.

“‘Fiume o morte!’ is a movie on poetry, dynamite, cocaine, machine weapons, soccer, airplanes, furnishings flying out of home windows, concert events, prisons, sunbathing, hundreds of troopers, thousands and thousands of bullets, countless speeches, a platypus and on the ability of political performativity. D’Annunzio may as nicely be thought-about its trailblazer heralding among the largest masters of ghastly political showmanship of our age.”

The movie is Bezinović’s third function, following “The Blockade” (2012), which acquired the Oktavijan prize for Finest Croatian Documentary in 2012, and “A Temporary Tour” (2017), which premiered in Rotterdam’s Vibrant Future strand in 2017.

Bezinović feedback: “By making this movie I wished to get to know the previous of my hometown Rijeka/Fiume, but in addition to get to know its current state from a brand new perspective. I made this movie with my fellow residents and for my fellow residents, which I hope we’ll be capable of retell to new generations.”

He continues: “Throughout this course of I’ve met a whole bunch of my fellow residents, who all had concepts about what this movie must be like. I’ve additionally met historians of all types, from those that noticed D’Annunzio because the crazier model of Mussolini to those who noticed him because the Italian Che Guevara.

“In 1960, Pier Paolo Pasolini known as D’Annunzio’s occupation of Fiume a ‘narcissistic escapade’: D’Annunzio noticed Fiume as a private playground, as a spot the place he may experiment and apply every part that got here to his thoughts. By making this movie I wished to maintain D’Annunzio’s thought of Rijeka/Fiume as a playground, however this time the residents of Rijeka are those who’re taking part in.”

Anna Berthollet, CEO of Lightdox, mentioned: “‘Fiume o morte!’ is a daring, genre-defying hybrid that masterfully unpacks one in all historical past’s most weird occupations with irreverence and wit. Igor Bezinović’s defiant and punk cinematic journey challenges historic narratives, providing a well timed lens on nationalism and the artwork of propaganda.”

Producer Vanja Jambrović provides: “We have been hoping to make a movie that efficiently combines one weird occasion from 100 years in the past and the difficult current time during which Europe faces once more an increase of various nationalistic ideologies. We hope that folks, regardless of the place they arrive from, will be capable of learn that message from the movie.”

“Fiume o morte!” is produced by Jambrović and Tibor Keser for Restart in Croatia, in coproduction with Erica Barbiani for Videomante in Italy, and Marina Gumzi for Nosorogi in Slovenia.

The movie has been supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Eurimages, Ministero della cultura – Direzione Generale Cinema e audiovisivo, Fondo per l’Audiovisivo del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Slovenian Movie Heart, Movie Studio Viba Movie Ljubljana, Media Programme of the European Fee, Croatian tv – HRT, Slovenian tv – RTV SLO, RE-ACT Co-Improvement Funding Scheme, the Metropolis of Rijeka, the Metropolis of Zagreb, Friuli Venezia Giulia Movie Fee, ANGOA – PROCIREP and the Croatian Movie Administrators’ Guild.