The Congo Tribunal
Performance, Movie and Book
In the form of a tribunal with an international cast and filmed on-location in Eastern Congo and in Berlin, the theatre & film project „The Congo Tribunal“ examines the causes and backgrounds for the war now ongoing for almost 20 years in the Great Lakes region. The result is a humanly harrowing, profound analytic tableau of the neo-colonial world order.
Triggered by the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and based on the direct or indirect involvement of all of the great powers of our time, the Congo War, also referred to as the „Third World War“, has claimed up to six million lives. Many observers not only see in it a fight about political predominance in Central Africa, but also one of the most decisive economic division-battles in the era of globalization. While the number of rebel armies involved may be intransparent, even more intransparent are the arms dealers operating in the supply lines, the role of foreign diplomats and humanitarian relief organizations, but also the involvement of multinational mining companies. Will one of the biggest and bloodiest economic wars of human history decide the future order of the global community?
With “The Congo Tribunal”, Milo Rau completes his preoccupation with Central Africa, which he started with the theater, film and book production of “Hate Radio” (about the Rwandan genocide) in 2011 and, amongst others, with the 2013/2014 talk show series “The Berlin Dialogues”. The international cinema release of “The Congo Tribunal” will be in autumn 2017.
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Milo Rau
RESEARCH AND CASTING Eva-Maria Bertschy PRODUCER Arne Birkenstock, Olivier Zobrist CO-PRODUCER Milo Rau STAGE DESIGNER Anton Lukas CAMERA Thomas Schneider SOUND Jens Baudisch, Marco Teufen EDITING Katja Dringenberg LINE PRODUCER Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Mirjam Knapp EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Sebastian Lemke PRODUCTION MANAGER Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Kirsten Schauries, Eva-Karen Tittmann ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Mirjam Knapp RESEARCH ON SITE Kris Berwouts, Chrispin Mvano Ya Bauma, Jean Moreau Tibubu TECHNICAL MANAGER BUKAVU Patric Byamungu CORPORATE DESIGN Nina Wolters PUBLIC RELATIONS Yven Augustin CROSSMEDIA Sebastian Lemke EDITORIAL BOOK Rolf Bossart
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL is a film and theatre production of Milo Rau and the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM).
The theatre project is a coproduction of IIPM and Sophiensaele Berlin, in cooperation with Fruitmarket Arts and Media, Langfilm, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, funded by Regierender Bürgermeister von Berlin – Senatskanzlei – Kulturelle Angelegenheiten, Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (bpb) and the Goethe Institut Johannesburg. With the kind support of Brussels Airlines.
The film is a German-Swiss coproduction of Fruitmarket Arts and Media and Langfilm, in cooperation with IIPM and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF & Radio Télévision Suisse RTS, Lemafrika Culture et Développement and Kwetu Film Institute, funded by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Bundesamt für Kultur Schweiz, Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Kulturförderung Kanton St. Gallen / Swisslos, Zürcher Filmstiftung, Filmförderungsanstalt, Deutscher Filmförderfonds and Volkart Stiftung.