"Fiume O Morte " Brilliantly Dramatizes the Rise of a Demagogue

Many filmmakers display undue faith in their ability to depict ways of life far outside their own experience. This blithe self-confidence is particularly egregious in depictions of distant history, where imagination inevitably courts fabrication. The Croatian director Igor Bezinović confronts this problem boldly and brilliantly in “Fiume o Morte!” (“Fiume or Death!”) by showing his process. He combines nonfiction elements with fictionalizations of historical events—and reveals the behind-the-scenes creation of these reënactments, turning the work into a documentary about its own making. The film, which will screen on April 4th and 5th in the “New Directors/New Films” series at both MOMA and Film at Lincoln Center, is centered on an astounding true story that took place in Bezinović’s home town of Rijeka, and his telling emphasizes both his personal connection to the saga and the strangeness of dramatizing it. The film focusses on a tumultuous period between 1919 and 1921, when the Ita ... Read full article.