Debate X NZIFF #6: Fiume o morte!

DEBATE X NZIFF | REVIEW | WEB EXCLUSIVE

Written by Daniel Tang (he/him) | @daniel941 on Letterboxd | Contributing Writer

Igor Bezinović infuses an astounding degree of resourcefulness and creativity into Fiume o morte!, a documentary about eccentric Italian fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio. The residents of Fiume (presently Rijeka, Croatia), with great ironic candour, impersonate and play-by-play reenact D'Annunzio's short-lived rule of what was briefly a city-state. The film leans heavily into the absurdity of the fascists' private lives and military choices, with non-professional locals dressing up and re-enacting the city's history with D'Annunzio following the First World War. The re-enactments become a punchline of the ridiculousness depicted in the archival photos but also how funny, well-done and accurate they are despite the subject matter's moral bankruptcy.

It is in that ironic tension, poking fun at the fascist aesthetics and unreasonableness of fascist rulers, where the documentary misses its opportunity for criticality. Satire without a critical edge does not, and did not, amount to a true dissection and negation of D'Annunzio's fascist values and the rise of Mussolini's fascist Italy. Just as the selectively well-documented era of D'Annunzio's fascism depicted 'fun-loving' soldiers following their poet-turned-leader, this documentary fails to critique the strategic allure in the romanticisation of fascism. The film relies on the audience understanding its anti-fascism by inference along with some present day street interviewees in Rijeka airing their off-the-cuff thoughts. Under the current, terrifying rise and domination of fascism in Italy and abroad, including in Aotearoa New Zealand, films like Fiume o morte! simply cannot afford to risk further normalising and trivialising fascism and its aesthetics into a punchline. Facing an abundance of fascist dog-whistles and propaganda across culture currently, anti-fascist art must stand steadfast rather than rely on inference via absurdity and camp. We are in a losing systemic fight against fascism to defend equity, community, and democracy so when documentaries like this skirt along difficult conversations, it is, naturally, disappointing.

Nevertheless, this film undeniably came from an astounding effort of production and clearly bears critical and educational merit. Critically, I will always appreciate the preservation and revitalisation of dying languages like Fiumano (the Fiuman dialect) as is intentionally arranged to be the narrated language across most of Fiume o morte! Missed opportunities aside, this documentary soars at its best as a love letter to the present and future of Rijeka and its community and breathes life into the possibilities in documentary filmmaking.