The Fire and the Sea

Italy, 1919 – the Great War is over, but for some, victory has brought little peace. In the midst of territorial quarrels all over Europe, the disputed port city of Fiume is seized by an army of rebel Italian soldiers, demanding its annexation from Yugoslavia to Italy. They are led by the poet-soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio, who seeks to paint on Fiume’s canvas his masterpiece of political action – a bold vision of the future wrought in the poetry of flesh and blood.

When the crew of their ship mutinies in support of the rebellion and sails for the city, Italian naval officers Achille and Vitale are dragged into a maelstrom of politics, art and violence, where monarchists and futurists, poets and prostitutes, pirates and priests compete to build a new world on the ruins of the old. In Fiume, the city of freedom, they will be confronted with the dark passions and unsettling desires that dwell within – that burn, like a great fire, in the city by the sea.