Fiume o morte!

Igor Bezinović breathes life into a forgotten fascist coup and offers a feverish, playful, and sharply contemporary cinematic experience, awarded in Rotterdam.

With great inventiveness, Bezinović creates a hybrid documentary about the eccentric fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio’s absurd 1919 invasion of the Croatian city of Rijeka. The poet–aristocrat led an improvised troupe of mercenaries in an occupation that could just as well have been written as satire. When today’s residents of Rijeka take turns portraying D’Annunzio in staged tableaux, the result is a humorous yet unsettling reconstruction — and a vital history lesson that entertains, disturbs, and hits its mark.

• Sanjin Pejković