When Milo Rau ended his celebrated Europe Trilogy in northern Iraq with Empire in 2016, Mosul was still occupied by the terrorist militia ISIS. Two years later, in the newly liberated city, Rau and students from the Fine Arts Academy of Mosul set “a new benchmark for modern adaptations of classic texts”: Orestes in Mosul.

The play toured the world – but “can a Greek tragedy help heal a scarred city?” as the New York Times asked critically at the time. As a possible answer to this, Milo Rau, together with NTGent and UNESCO, founded the Film School in Mosul.

Now the collaboration is entering the next phase: Milo Rau and the actress Ursina Lardi (Compassion, Lenin, Everywoman) are currently researching in Mosul on their new play The Seer, freely based on Philoctetes by Sophocles – a piece reflecting on the connections between art, resistance and war.

At the same time, the focus series 10 Days with Milo Rau starts in Strasbourg. Rau’s adaptations of Greek classics Antigone in the Amazon and Medea’s Children are at the center of the program – both productions have just been nominated for the main Italian theater prize Premio Ubu as Best Foreign Play!

In addition to films, debates and seminars (a. o. Realism as Ethics), another highlight will be the Strasbourg stop of the Resistance Now! Tour on November 30. After Rau’s speeches in Prague and at the Jewish Museum Hohenems, the expectations are high.

Only this much should be said: the city of the European Parliament will see more than just another debate – but the beginning of a completely new level of campaigning for European culture.

Don’t miss the Resistance Now Tour!