he takes. with. the game some special. truth. more than football. but this is this was what makes people panic when they work with me is that i might say to an activist play jesus or i might tell a child they have to play perfectly or tell an actor that i'm not going to give him any lines or tell him what he should do so. in the end he might turn out to be the

dramatic advisor and not on stage at all. this man never takes a break. let's cut his throat. god. is one of europe's most successful and controversial directors he has a clear mission he wants to make the world a better place with his art. always gives his all in theater film and political activism what drives him easy. to keep. the city of. a small and yet incredibly lively. a remarkable

cultural scene has developed here in the shadow of the belgian capital brussels we met me at mt ghent the theater where he is now artistic director. 50 or swiss and known to be a restless spirit what brought you to get. it this could no longer go back a long way not only get in i've done a lot of co-productions in brussels over the past 1015 years there are many minorities here though if you can't compare it with a german city at all there's another audience there's more access to a cosmopolitan society and at the same time it's a tradition of mixing genres and theater here the show almost makes the worst many artists have been combining dance performance film and theatre from the start. but when i arrived and said i needed a lamb and 2 dogs and a jihad is that they all said ok we'll get that for you. in germany and they would

have said you're crazy you've got to work with their ensemble and that's a bunch of old white men. most men don't know how this 1st piece as artistic director an empty ghent pedo marched against famous altarpiece and the city's residents he didn't just put lambs on stage but amateur actors children migrate seniors he want to create cosmopolitan theatre but he doesn't only want to direct place. but i really like it and i'm passionate pedantic about it at them but then it can become boring and stressful to me more. so i'm glad when i can travel and do something that automatically makes sense out 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. 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. a. venue and. continues to work on projects in and about africa. we. should 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. at the start to. feel the many companies exploited the fact that it was a failed state. they saw i think it just brought someone in mind the whole time there

are huge deposits there and the war is still ongoing on. the creek if the. very end of. the tunnel. so i thought let's set up a tribunal to examine the situation with the set up an international court and keep those so we've got judges from that made where there is 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 it's really you know long. long produce us to me because i. like. the symbolic tribunal and the film were a way of encouraging democracy and. those were done.

to me when we toured through the mining towns to show the film 2 years later people said that what was happening was terrible but they said they would stop voting if there wasn't any change and there would be a revolution and that's what we saw in east germany when everyone said that's enough this is enough now it's been time to you want your theater to have an impact on reality and that happened in congo as a result of the tribunals didn't it. because it was just so i mean the human factor was that 2 ministers were fired from the provinces we had worked in the mining minister in the interior minister. but i but it's actually 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 that's 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. business those who focus on not miss 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 as the capital of the i s calif it all art forms were banned and artists were executed if they didn't renounce their art i couldn't slow europe the poor so whites 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 this.

also fit. into d.c. of the star like. this over. 'd and asian greek tragedy about murder and revenge within a royal family transposed to contemporary iraq ringback. it's a country which knows all about murder and revenge once again how explored how victims and perpetrators can continue to live together. what can be done about the fighters of the so-called islamic states prevent. for retribution. the only. time.

he asked the iraqi actors what they thought should be done. and i think. the more the more they. go to the men you know often believe you know the more i don't think. it's. the money that's going to stick around down the. revenues of their money might be what you know coming out of the meeting. come on. the minute. when asked again they answer differently. and show up in iraq it's been another fake expected they'd all vote for forgiveness but they all abstained. they said because we couldn't even kill a chicken because so how could we vote to put someone to death and torture yet if we forgive them we've abolished justice and that's why my hope still lies with the institutions and if it's

a justice can exist so people say i can't kill the guy but i don't want him to go free so i'll hand him over to a judiciary i trust you know but when there isn't any like in iraq and what do you do then when this nice dies to me of course most of them you know blame me in millo house 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 that's what the it should do and that's what we what we should do make people think make people think about the lives and about our life together and that's what he does so he's maybe

provocative and maybe goes a bit too fossum times but i think it's ok i think it's better than the opposite no go straight there were that's. a rather you performers also push things to their limits and beyond what does a project like this do for a local they simply act. as if they could earn some votes as we were leaving people said that was cool to go on the 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 i'm also it's a success story unesco watching the film. the secretary general says you must advise us they're going to think that shows how little contact the rest when they ask us been there twice who they should support one of the on. the streets and couldn't and it's hard to would if i was just name consultant director of the film

and theater department of the revive the spirit of mosul programs on top of. i'm 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 that's what you want in this are you really a political activist in charge the activist. i mean it's interesting time and again when i'm doing rehearsals like now i realize. that's really work to be on the whole when you're involved in activism you kind of just get carried along . by not to be when i think your activism isn't for me and your theater work isn't either and the fun is that sometimes i mean but it was really nice in italy the people i choose to g.'s a scene in costume and then take part in some demonstration. but in between monday it was to look cool. oh yeah they're yellow shirts 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 the terra often in camps are makeshift settlements. 7 but this is not a historical film it's a sad story from our times calls jesus is a social revolutionary fighting for the disenfranchised. and. that's. what it.

is to call your religious. i mean atheist i don't 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 you're impressed by the power in the complexity of the bible. and then you understand why this book this faith still survives because there's something different about it. the desire for basic humanity fundamental solidarity and dignity. especially 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 didn't train a fighter so like they didn't islam they trained fighters built an army on the cheap power ok to. use this money but jesus also preaches complete nonviolence as though he's also

a crazy guy who goes around shouting acts ruthlessly when he can't take any criticism and in the end he's done in by his own people he could play and you might say it's because they can't take any more of him. and i found all of these points really impressive. when he took the line if in fact on the one hand the film shows stations in jesus's life but on the other there's this revolt. this revolt of dignity on real demonstrations by migrants is about what's 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. are full of people who are thanks to the dublin regulation are stuck there. they're exploited on the huge tomato and orange

plantations until they die or i don't know disappear towards me. so they have. go away either for their prisoners in italy a white list illegal nameless 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 they've all personally experienced exploitation as field hands who have no rights. here. now they're revolting against the mafia and big companies who profit from their labor. places where people no longer have to work for the mafia but on their own plantations for example. try to remind people that a legal basis exists that it's a scandal these laws aren't enforced and tried to help them and force it like it

says in the bible i didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill it to fully. migrants from the camps around the terror i had come for the big rally they're 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 this protest will also become part of the new gospel. truth to your ass theatre director and a university lecturer and you're 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 i've always liked to work a lot because it's my way of coming into contact with people if i just worked like crazy and i don't know maybe produced 500 machine parts and not just 50 then i'd be a workaholic and i wouldn't really find that acceptable in the food from washington i can hear. this incidentally i are an astonishingly little couldn't for the show if i count the hours i worked and still work every day that it's not worth it at all. then you would. have incurred a mountain of debt is through all of my projects which were always completely underfunded and always caused tax chaos that were delivered to you name it. could be felt that you can be honest i found it companies which then collapsed somehow and all that just so i can work a lot it's pretty contradictory this nor the me to shoot

a whole but income as this is. also a father is there any time left for your family. for you to be nick would be me far too little because i have a screensaver of my daughter's and often when i look at it i think that the most important thing. this be fixed or a few more is i feel that the most important from the input i do miss a lot of the same times i'm 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 that's 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 if the office will move from something. though maybe they're glad not to have such a go getter of a father around all week. yeah yeah i think that's true with my family just like

with my coworkers here well also don't see me all the time was a positive side to it this isn't usual when you're really glad to see one another really communicating there's not such a torturous routine to it mickey conveyed in their will tina. routine has to be the last thing most people would associate with me though how he's positively brimming with energy and extraordinary ideas. fabulous networkers he's always curious and not afraid of getting involved in things but he's also someone who knows no boundaries someone who's constantly challenging himself and those who work with him . actress was seen a lot he has collaborated with on several successful productions currently they're preparing a new piece about disenfranchised people in brazil. seem

to have been in contact about this project for over a year. and the direction frequently changes radically for the since i've grown used to it and now i think it's wonderful he was brings disorder into order also into the order of the theater business and that's his great strength though it's stressful too but mainly it's the strength so. 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. but. i live. here. so that. other gods love me that you keep on. tackling highly charged

topics but also shun the usual theatrical the facts big emotions and outbursts on stage your performers act more like witnesses do you make it hard on the viewer as a human in my theater but then i'm not german people don't go around screaming mice and then but then they don't in most countries luckily it's only that way in german regional theater. that's always put me off the wire these people shouting at me how can i get close to them when they're busy showing me they've taken an elocution course. then under is a good image and another thing that's 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 . 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 tour most of the roles

including that of do true are acted by the children to emphasize the power relationship between adults and children. have always asked myself why isn't this power relationship visible on stage and when this case arose i thought i must use the trickle methods to show what it really is. kidnapped the children but basically he told them stories to control them and to get them to do things that they really didn't 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 don't want to do suddenly and this is the really uncomfortable part you understand how that really works. so you

know. this is. only. 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 a new throws the student can so 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 playing those plays and i would i think about the only people who were traumatized at all were the children with this funny and thought i found that cool somehow this because there's kind of a liberation in the portrayal of not being free it's often that way in theater. and then the my basically you overcome trauma by going through it what are you working on now. and 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 you're dissecting evil. yes i always have. to go. mad at.

you. and. move. on.

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d.w. dot com african american cities the mechanisms could the target. the creative today's world. in 1970 narain a historical turning point in politics business coming from iran the upheaval of the islamic revolution. in terms of making its initial flirtation discos or strikes in states of emergency but sinks into chaos coach john harbaugh 2nd to displacement camps the people threatens the old her. body of christ and. the start of an era that defines our lives to. 97. to 2 small girls december 23rd.

the to. play . this is e w news live a from the bush fires burning out of control in australia several fires have now combined to form a neck of fire in a sydney shopping the country's largest city in a cloud of toxic smoke bonfire just say it's too big to close out also coming up the size issue on the streets of paris says activists 6.