A child they have to play perfectly or tell an actor that im not going to give him any lines or tell him what he should do. In the end he might turn out to be the dramatic advisor and not on stage at all times you know. This man never takes a break. Even lets cut his throat. God. Is one of europes most successful and controversial directors he has a Clear Mission he want to make the world a better place with his art. Always gives his all in theater film and political activism what drives him who easy. The city of ghent in belgium is small and yet incredibly lively a remarkable cultural scene has developed here in the shadow of the belgian capital brussels we met me you know how at and t. Get to the theater where he is now artistic director. 50 or swiss and known to be a restless spirit and what brought you to get. It this could no longer go back a long way not only get it done a lot of coproductions in brussels over the past 1015 years there are many minorities here though if you cant compare it with a german city at all theres another audience theres more access to a Cosmopolitan Society and at the same time its a tradition of mixing john resig theater here the show was mixed the worst many artists have been combining dance performances in film and theatre from the start. But when i arrived and said i needed a lamb and 2 dogs and a jihad they all said ok well get that for you. In germany and they would have said youre crazy youve got to work with our ensemble and thats a bunch of old white men. Most men dont know how the 1st piece is artistic director an empty get paid all marched against famous altarpiece and the citys residents he didnt just put lambs on stage but amateur Actors Children margaret seniors he want to create cosmopolitan theatre but he doesnt only want to direct place. But i really like it and im passionate pedantic about it them but then it can become boring and stressful to me more. To be explained in this manhunt so im glad when i can travel and do something that automatically makes sense a lot of the month you seem. To have spent a lot of time in africa in. Hate radio he examined the 994. 00 genocide in rwanda specifically the role of the radio r t l m which broadcast racist propaganda during the massacres. Up to 1000000 people are estimated to have been killed most of them tutsis most of the killers were hutus. Survivors of the genocide played the radio hosts in the production was there. A. Venue and. Continues to work on projects in and about africa. To. Look to for lunch from the u. K. When i worked in that region by chance 1st in rwanda and then i went to eastern congo and saw that all the problems the crises and the genocide had been exported because so many people had fled to eastern congo and there was instability in the state collapse. Not that. Many companies exploited the fact that it was a failed state. They saw i think it just ripe someone and mine is going to hold hard there are huge deposits there and the war is still ongoing on. The creek if. I. Was going to. Run with them and. So i thought lets set up a tribunal to examine the situation with the set up an International Court of. Law so we got judges from that made where theres an International Criminal court and from congo mixing different Legal Systems and we took 3 cases involving companies so that we could create a space to make such trials possible. If its really you know. Reduce i feel me. The symbolic tribunal and the film were a way of encouraging democracy in congo. And us with. The means that when we toured through the mining towns to show the film 2 years later this is people said that what was happening was terrible but they said they would stop voting if there wasnt any change and there would be a revolution and thats what we saw in east germany when everyone said thats enough this is enough now its been time to you want your theater to have an impact on reality and that happened in congo as a result of the tribunals didnt it. The consequence was this i mean the impact was that 2 ministers were fired from the provinces we had worked in the mining minister in the interior minister. But ive always thought that it was obvious that they were completely incompetent and corrupt and even criminals. My hope is always that the Political Class and the Business Elite should have to justify themselves in front of an institution was for them thats the ultimate goal. Because this is this this is this this and soon. He does one project a year in a crisis zone with his theater in 2019 he went with some actors to mosul and iraq to stage a modern day oresteia the trilogy of ancient greek tragedies by escalus theyre out of the business was to focus on numbness there is no theater there we found a kind of Fine Art Academy 1st but 1st the city was conquered by the americans then by al qaeda and then occupied by us of the ho as the capital of the i s calif it all art forms were banned and artists were executed if they didnt renounce their art i couldnt slow you nearly to poor so whats in the complaint that. It was not an easy project the iraqis had very Little Theatre experience and they were not allowed to go abroad as had originally been planned so how filmed them in iraq and projected the scenes onto the stage during the performances in belgium its. Hard. To say. This also fit. Into d. C. The star like. This already in theater. And age and greek tragedy about murder and revenge within a royal family transposed to contemporary iraq ringback. Its a country which knows all about murder and revenge once again me though how explored how victims and perpetrators can continue to live together. What can be done about the fighters of the socalled islamic states prevent. For retribution. The only. Time. He asked the iraqi actors what they thought should be done. In. The film where you know doesnt believe you know the moral of. The month if you stick around don. Lemon and sit there and many might get what you might coming out of the meeting. Come on. The minute. When asked again they answer differently. And show up in iraq its been another fake expected theyd all vote for forgiveness but they all abstain. They said because we couldnt even kill a chicken because so how could we vote to put someone to death yet if we forgive them weve abolished justice and thats why my hope still lies with the institutions and if its a justice can exist so people say i cant kill the guy but i dont want him to go free so ill hand him over to a judiciary i trust you know but when there isnt any like in iraq and you see what do you do then apply when theres new stuff just me of course most of them. Blame me and millo how staging the character orestes is gay a taboo subject in a predominantly Muslim Country like iraq. This kiss between 2 men caused an uproar at the performance in mosul. Actor johan lace and was there does he think all went too far. They like to push things further than other people and i think thats what should do and thats what we what we should do make people think make people think about lives and about our life together and thats what he does so hes maybe provocative and maybe goes a bit too far sometimes but i think its ok i think its better than the opposite. Go straight there were. Rather he performers also push things to their limits and beyond what does a project like this do for localism. As he reckons im doing as we were leaving people said that was cool to go on this for the 1st time in 20 years a large group came here to do an art project and not to conquer the city with arrestees im also its a Success Story once and bush unesco watching the film. The secretary general says you must advise us theyre going to think that shows how little contact there as when they ask only been there twice who they should support one of the up on. The streets and its hard to would if i was just named consultant director of the film and Theater Department of the revive the spirit of mosul programs on top of. Im going to build a theater there and do an exchange with 3 border countries germany belgium and maybe france put it on a solid footing to face the millions are flowing into the feast thats what you want in this are you really a political activist in charge the activist. I mean its an interesting time and again when im doing rehearsals like now i realize. Thats really work to go right to be on the ball when youre involved in activism you kind of just get carried along. By not to be sweetness when i think of your activism isnt for me if youre theater work isnt either fun is that sometimes i mean but it was really nice in italy. Because i chewed a jesus scene in costume and then take part in some demonstration. That was to look cool. Cool yeah you know lho shot his latest film the new gospel in my terre in southern italy jesus and most of the apostles are african immigrants and refugees some are christian others muslim. People living around my tera often in camps are makeshift settlements. But this is not a historical film its a sad story from our times calls jesus is a social revolutionary fighting for the disenfranchised. And. Thats. The way. Its to go your religious. I mean atheist and i dont believe in god and i never have not even as a child and not through these rooms and of course when you deal with it youre impressed by the power in the complexity of the bible. And then you understand why this book this faith still survives because theres Something Different about it. I mean the desire for basic humanity thats fundamental solidarity and dignity. As to. Take for example how absurd it is that jesus surrounds himself with the lowest members of society in a bid to seize power so that he could have set up better associations and he didnt train a fighter so like they didnt islam they trained fighters built an army on the cheap power ok to. Use this money but jesus also preaches complete non violence so hes also a crazy guy who goes around shouting acts ruthlessly when he cant take any criticism and in the end hes done in by his own people he could play them and then you might say its because they cant take any more of him. And i found all of these points really impressive. Funny with the wind and the fence act on the one hand and the film shows stations in jesuss life but on the other there is this revolt digne tell this revolt of dignity make on real demonstrations by migrants is that whats the situation like for migrants there and what problems did you have recruiting people in these camps. You know. I travelled there and realised that this lovely little city which has doubled for jerusalem in many films is ironically surrounded by refugee camps. Theyre full of people who are thanks to the dublin regulation are stuck there. Theyre exploited on the huge tomato and orange plantations until they die or i dont know who disappeared on to what. We know though so they have to go. Or go away either if theyre prisoners in italy they whitelist the legal name. Just the kind of people jesus spoke up for. The boundaries between reality and fiction blur. Performers are fighting for better working and Living Conditions in real life theyve all personally experienced exploitation as field hands who have no right. Now theyre revolting against the mafia and Big Companies who profit from their labor. Day places where people no longer have to work for the mafia but on their own plantations for example. They have tried to remind people that a legal basis exists that its a scandal these laws are enforced and tried to help them and force it like it says in the bible i didnt come to destroy the law but to fulfill it to fully and. Migrants from the camps around the terra had come for the big rally theyre preparing for the revolt. Initiated by the actors jesus and his disciples. The. Local people also demonstrate solidarity with their demands for a right of residence and an end to the exploitation of this protest will also become part of the new gospel. Truth to us theater director and a University Lecturer and youre bringing out a book series that are always doing 234 things at once are you a workaholic. Yeah yeah yeah i was always that way. Ive always liked to work a lot because its my way of coming into contact with people if i just worked like crazy and i dont know maybe produced 500 Machine Parts and not just 15 then id be a workaholic and i wouldnt really find that acceptable in the field where she interaction here is there in the nation got a hold of this incidentally i are an astonishingly little for the show if i count the hours ive worked and still work every day that its not worth it at all. Then you would see. I have incurred a mountain of debt is through all of my projects which were always completely underfunded always cause tax chaos that were delivered to you name it. Could be felt that you can be others i found it companies which then collapsed somehow. All that just so i can work a lot its pretty contradictory this is northern me to shoot a home and this is. Also a father is there any time left for your family. For you to be unique to be in far too little i have a screensaver of my daughters and often when i look at it i think that the most important thing. This be fixed are a few more so i feel that the most important from them but i do miss a lot of the same times im working in ghent and i live in cologne which are pretty close. So i try to be home for 2 or 3 days each week thats why i often do rehearsals and conduct meetings in cologne. Because of my family people always have to come to cologne to meet me and i try to spend as much time there as possible. With flaxen though maybe theyre glad not to have such a go getter of a father around all week. Yeah. I think thats true with my family just like with my coworkers here who also dont see me all the time was a Positive Side to it. When youre really glad to see one another really communicating theres not such a torturous routine to it could be a. Routine has to be the last thing most people would associate with me though hes positively brimming with energy and extraordinary ideas. That bulis networker hes always curious and not afraid of getting involved in things but hes also someone who knows no boundaries someone whos constantly challenging himself. And those who work with him. Actress was seen a lot he has collaborated with on several successful productions currently theyre preparing a new piece about disenfranchised people in brazil. Weve been in contact about this project for over a year. And the direction frequently changes radically since ive grown used to it and now i think its wonderful brings disorder into order also into the order of the theater business and thats his great strength though its stressful too but mainly its the strength. In compassion the history of the machine gun was you know lardy plays an ngo worker who finds herself confronted with her own limits and prejudices. Here. Either because you keep on tackling highly charged topics but also shun the usual theatrical effects or big emotions and outbursts on stage your performers act more like witnesses so do you make it hard on the viewer. That was in my theatre but then im not german people dont go around screaming mice and then but then they dont in most countries luckily its only that way in german regional theater. Thats always put me off the wire these people shouting at me how can i get close to them when theyre busy showing me theyve taken an elocution course. The numbers are pretty major and another thing thats always interested me is listening to someone who. Listening to a story produces something in me and this is one of the quieter effects of theater and im sure things are. You know we can effect of this. This is the way stage 5 easy pieces a play about belgian child molester and murderer mark to took most of the roles including that of to true acted by the children to emphasize the power relationship between adults and children. And you have always asked myself why isnt this power relationship visible on stage and when this case arose i thought i must use the article methods to show what it really is he says kidnapped the children but basically he told them stories to control them and to get them to do things that they really didnt want to do but did all the same. And in my playing we see an adult director getting children to cry and undress and do things they actually dont want to do suddenly and this is the really uncomfortable part you understand how that really works when you have to go. You know. This is. Also. Oh oh. 5 easy pieces proved very controversial it was praised by International Critics yet performances were banned in some places. Is handling such dark material too much to expect of children will they be traumatized by the experience. What does it do to them to portray a child murderer or to play the role of the victim or the desperate parents to help us get to those those 2 you dont consider that animals and children are always authentic. I mean simply rehearsed with the children until they played all of these roles completely professionally employing different methods and all the while observing how the audience broke into tears and even play in this place now would i think about the only people who were traumatized at all were the children of the 25 i found that cool somehow it is because theres kind of a liberation in the portrayal of not being free its often that way in theater. And then the my basically you overcome trauma by going through it what are you working on now. And. I mean editing my jesus film the new gospel and doing a play called family for me we can from you can be in it i ask a family to recount the story of another family who killed themselves for reasons that remain completely unknown to this day and at the same time to understand why things like this happen. So here dissecting evil. Yes i always have. Your gun battle. Group that. Group. Claiming to be the big. Commitment to. Get. In. Touch. With. Whats going on here oh no house of your very own from a printer. Computer games that are healing. My dog needs electricity. Shift explains delivers facts and shows what the future holds oh yeah living. In the Digital World shift. In 15 minutes on d w. And the island of immense beauty created by a natural disaster. Iceland. The volcanoes that made it famous now threaten its very existence. How can i slanders protect themselves against the inevitable. Was a threatening volcano. In 30 minutes on d. W. 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