Igor Bezinović on Fiume o morte! | Meet the Filmmakers of New Directors/New Films 2025
April 17, 2025
Fiume o morte!
Exploring bold new works from filmmakers around the world, the 54th New Directors/New Films, our annual festival co-presented with The Museum of Modern Art, is officially underway through April 13. As the festival continues, get to know the filmmakers who speak to the present and anticipate the future of cinema.
Igor Bezinović discusses the films and directors that inspired him and what it means to screen his film Fiume o morte! at ND/NF.
What made you first want to be a director?
Igor Bezinović, film director. It sounded cool.
Was there a film or director you were inspired by or continue to be inspired by?
I began watching films on VHS tapes. I loved The Goonies, Police Academy, Batman, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and The Naked Gun. When I got a bit older, I loved Pulp Fiction, Dear Diary, and Leon: The Professional. I guess the films produced in the first 10 years of my life are the reason why I love films. The early inspirations are the main reason why I love films. The directors who inspired my work on Fiume o morte! are Nicole Hewitt, Nanni Moretti, Želimir Žilnik, Georges Perec, Sergio Oksman, Jean-Gabriel Périot, Peter Watkins, John Smith…
In your own words, tell us about your film. What should audiences know?
Fiume o morte! is a film about my hometown called Rijeka. It’s also a film about populism and fascism. It’s also a film about storytelling. It’s a film against assholes.
What does it mean to you to show your film at New Directors/New Films?
Being selected to New Directors/New Films, having my film in MoMA and Lincoln Center and visiting New York City for the first time is one of the most exciting things in my life so far.
What was the biggest lesson you learned during the making of your film?
Being obsessed with details is a blessing and a curse.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Don’t give advice unless somebody asks you for advice.
What else do you enjoy doing outside of filmmaking?
Hiking, judo, updating my blog: lavandin.tumblr.com.
What’s a film you saw recently that you enjoyed?
Alice Rohrwacher: La chimera; Nathan Fielder: The Rehearsal (series); Miranda Pennell: Man Number 4.
Fiume o morte!
The past is present and fact made fiction in Igor Bezinović’s Fiume o morte!, a high-energy hybrid documentary about early-20th-century Italian warrior-poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. A model for Mussolini who ruled Rijeka, Croatia, with an iron fist, D’Annunzio’s 16-month reign left such a legacy that current denizens (street-cast in a brilliant montage) are more than a little willing to play-act as his soldiers. Bezinović elaborately restages Rijeka’s strange, bloody era in a duet between filmmaking and history that melds Wes Anderson, Straub-Huillet, and Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up while holding an uneasy mirror to contemporary fears of fascism. Winner of the top prize at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Igor Bezinović’s Fiume o morte! screens on April 4 & April 5. New Directors/New Films takes place April 2-April 13. Explore the lineup and get tickets.
