Balagan

A few years ago, three actors from totally different cultural backgrounds made the five-hour-long, controversial stage play 'Arbeit macht frei', about their lives in Israel. Theatre and reality are closely interwoven in the case of these three actors. Khaled is Palestinian by birth and is considered a collaborator by some Palestinians because of his work in the Israeli theatre world. As the daughter of a father who survived the Sobibor concentration camp, Madi resists the institutionalisation of the Holocaust as the "new Israeli religion". And Moni, son of emigrated Iraqi-Jewish parents, feels torn between the orthodox and conservative views of his family, who are supporters of the colonialisation of the occupied territories, and the progressive atmosphere in the theatre world. The film examines the three actors' biographical backgrounds and contains fragments from 'Arbeit macht frei'. At the Berlin Filmfestival this year, the film was awarded the Peace Film Prize. The jury was "impressed by the convincing filmic combination of radically provocative theatre and the conflict-ridden existential situation of the actors in their country." (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)