Ages 16 and over In German, Romanian and Greek – with German and English surtitles

The back seat of a Citroën. His forehead pressed against the cold side window, his gaze drifts over the neon sign on the façade of a prefabricated block of flats: „I see something you don’t see."

La Haine (1995) by Mathieu Kassovitz is a film about both stagnation and explosion: 24 hours in the lives of three young men, caught between the banlieue, police violence and the constant threat of social annihilation. The film tells of friendship and anger, of powerlessness, a lack of prospects and the question of how violence arises – and is passed on. The famous line „so far, so good" still resonates today: as a mantra of repression in a society in free fall.

The international collaboration with the Greek theatre company Spectrum Amke takes La Haine as its starting point to explore contemporary forms of life on the margins of society. Newly written texts from the „Professional Writing" Master’s programme at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena transpose the film’s themes, characters and conflicts into the present-day reality of Jena’s outskirts. The result is a series of scenes featuring young people between a sense of belonging and a lack thereof, between prefabricated housing estates and global streams of imagery, between social discontent and the rise of authoritarian and fascist ways of thinking.

The hip-hop soundtrack by the artist Sorbas, developed specifically for this production, draws on the musical DNA of „La Haine", in which rap plays a central role as the voice of the street, as an expression of resistance and self-assertion.

This is not a retelling of the film, but rather a reimagining of it: what does hatred mean today? Who is allowed to speak, who is heard, and who disappears from view? How are violence, resistance and solidarity changing in an age of social media, heightened exclusion and political radicalisation?

Cast:

Starring: Ioana Nițulescu, Anna Maria Papaioannou, Florian Thongsap Welsch Concept, set design, direction: Daniele Szeredy Concept, dramaturgy: Josef Bäcker Video: Gelly Pedefu Live music: Simon Schwan (Sorbas) Costumes: Shayenne Di Martino Assistant director: Ioanna Lioutsia Set design assistant: Lenni Hofer Production manager: Maria Bornhorn

The ZwischenStücke are a collaboration between the Mülheim Theatre Festival, Mülheim City Library and the Theater an der Ruhr. read less