In 1919, amid the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a self-proclaimed, unstable yet fiery poet emerges in Fiume, seizes the city by military force, and declares himself its absolute ruler. Gabriele D’Annunzio’s bizarre short-lived reign is seen as a precursor to Italian fascism, and although the Italian state was forced to end the 16-month-long embarrassing episode, only a few years later, with Benito Mussolini’s rise to power, D’Annunzio would be enshrined as a national hero in Italy’s historical pantheon. In Igor Bezinović’s innovative, Rotterdam IFF- winning film, the citizens of Rijeka bring to life the tragicomic chapters of D’Annunzio’s grotesque 16-month rule.
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