Tag: German

Croissants, strawberries and the end of the world

Here we see a family stripped of a backstory to go home to; we get a glance at how an idyllic place can turn hostile, in its landscape and in the elements which hours before seemed perfect. Strangers’ laughter feels antagonistic. The time delay until you get home seems cruel.

Long black nights

Based on a snippet from the New Testament, involving the relationship between Herod’s step-daughter and the powers that be, Salome features Yochanaan (John the Baptist), played by Peter Mattei in excruciating scenes touching on cruelty and madness, with a touch of necrophilia and nuances of child sexuality in the mix.

Weltschmerz and glitter

Now in her sixties and not afraid to take hold of the world with both hands, Elzabe Zietsman’s revue comprises a mêlée of songs which she has penned and others she has moulded to fit South Africa’s unique levels of hypocrisy, hatred and hope, sometimes all in the same breath.

Living next door to Auschwitz

WHAT WOULD YOU tell your children if you lived next door to hell? While they ramble through their idyllic garden and live their perfect life, how would you explain the occasional screams of abject terror uttered by strangers, in the night, or the appearance of blood on your […]

Powder keg in the classroom

OVER THE LAST few years, our social world has become so painstakingly aware of the possibility of offending others, that something has been lost in our ability to be candid. This sensitive nerve in contemporary society is explored excruciatingly in The Teachers’ Lounge featuring Leonie Benesch. It’s on […]

Mr Perfect, a cautionary tale

IF YOU WERE a god and had every possible human proclivity at your fingertips, on a drawing board, which ones would you choose to embody your most perfect partner? Beautiful eyes? An ability to laugh? A talent for the spontaneous? Large feet? This is roughly the premise of […]

Ultimate betrayal

WHEN YOU ARE confronted with the idea of losing your person, you will turn into a demon if you have to. You will break heaven and earth with the hope that these combats may twist the path of the stars. Even if you know that you are just […]

Suffer the little high school children

“IF YOU WERE born in Morocco, but only lived there for two years, why do you still consider it your homeland?” This and other myriad, somewhat intrusive and philosophically complex questions put to adolescents are central to Maria Speth’s immersive documentary, Mr Bachmann and his Class, which will […]