School of Resistance Orestes in Mosul

Watch the recording of the discussion here

How can a crime be atoned for without sowing more violence? Can a person oppressed and tortured for years by the “Islamic State” forgive their tormentor? As does Orestes, the hero of the Oresteia, the founding myth of Western civilisation dramatized in Aeschylus' classical trilogy, the tragic hero of Milo Rau’s Orestes in Mosul ends up before a tribunal, as well: an attempt to break the endless cycle of revenge killings by introducing a modern legal system. A multilingual ensemble composed of European and Iraqi actors, an Iraqi drama school class, musicians and amateurs talk about themselves and their life in a destroyed city.

The post-screening discussion focused on the central question of the theater production and film: Can the circle of violence be interrupted? Does the compulsion to repeat entangle us over and over again? The panel also turns to the challenges of global art production: How might “Global Realism” as an aesthetic form and mode of production of IIPM/Milo Rau, avoid unwittingly repeating the depicted relations of violence and dependency? How can global art be equal and sustainable? With cultural theorist and writer Klaus Theweleit, playwright Mohammad Al Attar and actress Susana Abdul-Majd, dramaturge Eline Banken interrogated the conditions of global art production as well as the significance of artistic strategies of resistance.

>> Programme overview