A century after Gabriele d’Annunzio’s occupation of Fiume ended under cannon fire, “The Poet Who Would Be King” revisits one of modern Italy’s most audacious and divisive political adventures. In 1919, the poet seized the Adriatic city in the name of completing the Risorgimento, creating a short-lived state that still sparks arguments from Venice and Rome to Croatia: an act of heroism, or a flamboyant and violent prelude to twentieth-century nationalism?
Blending historical reconstruction with a sharp, irreverent political inquiry, the film explores the enduring allure of the poet-dictator. D’Annunzio’s experiment combined radical liberal ideas, artistic avant-gardism and personal excess with nationalism, militarism and messianic self-mythology. Through the rooms and memories of the Vittoriale, and with rare archival photographs and audiovisual documents gathered across Europe, the film brings the Fiume enterprise vividly back to life.
Featuring encounters with Giordano Bruno Guerri, Vittorio Sgarbi, Alessandro Marzo Magno, Tea Perincic, Ilaria Rocchi and contemporary admirers of d’Annunzio, The Poet Who Would Be King gives voice to conflicting Italian and Croatian perspectives on his legacy. Produced by Daring House and Cinecittà Luce, it is both an emotional journey into history and a timely reflection on charisma, power and the dangerous seduction of political spectacle.
