Metropolis Empire Sofil - Ashrafieh
Michel Bustros
Beirut
Lebanon
Film Screening: The Moscow Trials
Monday, November 5, 2018 - 19:00 to 20:30
Zoukak Sidewalks 2018 - The Festival presents:
The Moscow Trials
Film Screening
By Milo Rau
Monday 5 of November 2018 at 7:00 pm, at Metropolis Empire Sofil Cinema - Ashrafieh, Beirut
Tickets: 8,000 LL
Tickets are available at the entrance of Metropolis Empire Sofil Cinema
Synopsis
In the summer of 2012, when the punk activists of Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a penal colony for their performance in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the world reacted with widespread protest rallies. Yet this was only the latest episode in a ten-year series of show trials of artists and dissidents, staged by Putin’s system to prevent any form of democratic change.
Rau thematises this issue by drawing on the techniques of political theater: from March 1 to 3, 2013, a courtroom was set up at the Moscow Sakharov Center to provide a stage for a three-day show trial that pitted the different sides of the cultural war waged in Russia against each other. Yet the people on stage were no professional thespians but real-life actors: artists, politicians, church leaders, real lawyers and a real judge. A jury composed of seven Moscow citizens finally handed down their sentence an acquittal, albeit by a narrow margin, for the artists.
The 3-day-trial, stormed by the Russian authorities and by units of the Cossacks, led to an international scandal and a travel ban against the director Milo Rau. The film The Moscow Trials documents the project and illuminates the historical and political backgrounds.
Credits
Concept and Direction: Milo Rau
Camera: Markus Tomsche
Sound: Jens Baudisch
Stage: Anton Lukas
Assistant Director: Yanina Kochtova
Editing: Lena Rem
Production: Arne Birkenstock
Germany 2014, 86 min (Russian with English subtitles)
www.international-institute.de
In cooperation with: Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film / Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Konzert Theater Bern, Gessnerallee Zürich, Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora, Memorial Russland, Sacharow-Zentrum Moskau, Wiener Festwochen, Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brüs-sel, Goethe-Institut Moskau, Fruitmarket Kultur und Medien GmbH.
Supported by funds from: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien
Artist's Biography
Milo Rau was called by critics “the most influential“ (DIE ZEIT), “most awarded“ (Le Soir), “most interesting“ (De Standaard) or “most ambitious“ (The Guardian) artist of our time. He is the artistic director of the NTGent beginning in the season 2018/19. Since 2002, he has put out over 50 plays, films, books and actions. His productions have appeared at all of the major international festivals. Rau has received many honours, most recently the Peter-Weiss-Prize 2017, the 3sat-Prize 2017, the 2017 Saarbrucken Poetry Lectureship for Drama. In 2017, Milo Rau was voted "Acting Director of the Year" in the critics' survey conducted by the Deutsche Bühne. Rau is also a television critic, lecturer and a very productive writer.
Zoukak Sidewalks – The Festival 2018 is supported by: Drosos Foundation, AFAC – Arab Fund for Art and Culture, the Sundance Institute, the Goethe Institute, the British Council, the French Institute – Paris, the French Institute – Lebanon, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Beirut Office, The Swiss Embassy in Lebanon.
Event Location:
Event Category:
Sidewalks
