Literatur Musik Film Performance

4th ‒ 21st December 2009 at Ballhaus Naunynstraße

Just weeks before hundreds of thousands of young Iranians took to the streets in the aftermath of the presidential elections in June, the regime had celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of February 1979. HAPPY REVOLUTION takes a look at both these events and their interconnections.

During the two weeks from Dec. 4th until Dec. 21st, HAPPY REVOLUTION offers a variety of perspectives by young Iranian artists largely living in exile. Drama and dance productions, readings, film screenings, concerts and installations reflect both the past and the present of the Islamic Revolution. With more than 15 items the program retraces networks of globally engaged cultural activists.

Musicians like the Iranian ska band Abjeez from Sweden or the Berlin-based choreographer Modjgan Hashemian with her recent work Move in PatternsThus the Lord created the cow provide artistic comments on the present political conditions in Iran. The drama by Abbas Maroufi, directed by Mehdi Moinzadeh and starring Pegah Ferydoni and Peter von Strombeck explores the dangers of seclusion into privacy and the intrusion of the regime into individual existence. Ayat Najafi’s drama production Tehran Banou ‒ Lady Teheran playfully engages in a transgression of boundaries of gender roles and imagined identities. Kaya Behkalam narrates stories of 30 years of living in exile in his video installation Temporary Museum of Subjective Histories. The actress Jasmin Tabatabai will present extracts of Shiva Arastouie’s censored novel Opium for the first time in German. A reading of Iranian blogs featuring German bloggers like Ekkehard Knörer and Bov Bjerg will shed light on a young Iranian opposition movement mainly organizing and exchanging via the internet. The festival closes on Shabe Yaldaa, the longest night of the year on Dec. 21st, with the all-nighter reading L’Ecriture Feminine and exclusively translated Iranian prose and poetry written by young female writers from Iran.

HAPPY REVOLUTION is a festival that celebrates the generation born round about 1979, which grew up with the fait accomplis of the Islamic Revolution and all its consequences. Their present has been shaped by the stories of families torn apart, parents being forced into exile and friends being imprisoned or tortured. HAPPY REVOLUTION tells of a generation’s handling of such experiences.