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Europe Recognizes the Value of the Film "River or Death!"
Director Igor Bezinović has received 140 euros in funding for his feature-length documentary inspired by D'Annunzio
The Steering Committee of the European Co-production Fund Eurimages has supported a total of 37 projects, including the film “River or Death!” by director and screenwriter Igor Bezinović. The news was announced by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre. The decision to fund the film produced by Restart in the amount of 140 thousand euros was made at the 164th session, held on December 9. The producer of the film, Vanja Jambrović, commented on the decision by saying that Bezinović's film, although it deals with historical events dating back more than a century in Rijeka, has enormous international potential, both because of the original approach to directing and because of the very important theme of strengthening nationalistic ideologies, which is what the work essentially focuses on. “This financial support will allow us to finish filming as planned four years ago, when we started developing the project,” she said.
We recall that the film “Fiume o morte!”, which we have written about several times in our daily newspaper, tells the historical events after the First World War, namely Gabriele D'Annunzio's enterprise in Fiume, which began in September 1919. The Poet proclaimed Fiume his micronation and was supported by a thousand arditi, Italian soldiers who rebelled against the regime.
As announced in the trailer of the film, a short period followed during which, according to many, Fiume was a real refuge for artists, writers, anarchists and non-conformists, but also a place where the seeds of nationalism were found. The filming team was even allowed to use the rooms of the Government Palace, where some of D'Annunzio's speeches were staged. Let us remember that for the occasion, the project also involved the former journalist of "Voce del popolo" and Radio Fiume, Andrea Marsanich, who played D'Annunzio (the film will feature 13 Gabriele d'Annunzios, physically very different from each other).
The project was born as a co-production of several film companies, namely “Nosorogi” in Slovenia and “Videomante” in Italy.
Prior to the Eurimages support, the project was also recognised by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), the Croatian Society of Film Directors, the City of Rijeka, the City of Zagreb, Creative Europe Media, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regional Fund and the Slovenian Film Centre.
The project was developed within the EKRAN + and EAVE programmes of 2019. Eurimages has secured a total of more than nine million euros for European co-productions, of which 49 pc went to female directors, in the context of the Gender Equality Strategy.
Source: The Voice of the People – 12/12/2021
