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INVISIBLE GAME
(K)eine Grenze
with English Surtitles
INVISIBLE GAME deals with illegal push-backs occurring in Europe’s border regions. The play is based on the material of real and documented, unpublished as well as already published, cases. In collaboration with investigative journalists, a theatre evening is created which reflects the current fundamental conflict of borders in a colonized world and tells of the dissolution of the boundaries of the human body.
Two students from Nigeria have travelled to Croatia for a table tennis tournament. A few days later they find themselves in a camp for refugees in Bosnia. What happened? They were kidnapped by police forces in Europe. Shortly after that, an emergency cabinet meeting of the Ministry of the Interior takes place in order to cover up the faux pas. Meanwhile, the police officers in charge are already busy with the next so-called “push-backs”. A Bosnian family on the other side of the border is inadvertently dragged into it all. The EU and other member states send ambivalent messages. A web is spun of post-colonial fears, economic interests, proto-fascist structures, power struggles, and above all a system of violence and oppression.
A system that tortures people after they cross the borders so they don’t come back, so they don’t even try again. Their mobile phones are destroyed because the police forces are afraid of video recordings. These people themselves call their attempt to cross the borders sarcastically “game”. This light formulation hides the very real danger of violence, torture and repression. On the other hand, a perfidious invisible game is being staged in the name of the “Europeans” and to the detriment of the “Others”. It is a narrative in which some people cross geographical borders while other people cross borders of human dignity, human rights and other people’s bodies.
With INVISIBLE GAME, David Stöhr, Matija Vlatković & Ensemble look at the central players in this game. The material for this work was compiled and made available over years by human rights lawyers, investigative journalists and countless others.
Push-back: “Push-backs are a set of state measures by which refugees and migrants are forced back over a border – generally immediately after they crossed it – without consideration of their individual circumstances and without any possibility to apply for asylum or to put forward arguments against the measures taken. Push-backs violate – among other laws – the prohibition of collective expulsions stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights.” ecchr.eu/en/glossary/push-back
The theatre shows will be followed by panel discussions with experts. These mainly include affected persons, but also journalists, human rights NGOs and people showing solidarity. The panels serve as a multilateral exchange.
Panelists:
- Vera Wriedt (Hertie School)
- Hanaa Hakiki (ECCHR)
- Mekonnen Mesghena (HBS, tbc)
- Claire Tixeire (ECCHR)
- Ahmed Isamaldin
- Ali Yass
- Bérénice Gaudin (Sea-Watch)
- • Delphine Rodrik (ECCHR)
- Majid Bajwa
- Lea Rösner (Bundestag WiMi – moderation)
- Sascha Girke (Iuventa, tbc)
- Ahmed Isamaldin(https://ahmedisamaldin.com/)
- Marita Fischer (Blindspots NGO)
- Abou Bakar Sidibé (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5490380/)
- Vera Wriedt (Bertha Justice Fellow Alumna at ECCHR, PhD researcher with Cathryn Costello & Marie-Benedicte Dembour)
- Mariana Karkoutly (Humanity in Action &https://www.womenpeacesecurity.org/peacebuilder/mariana-karkoutly/)
- Muhammad al-Kashef (Alarmphone, Abolish Frontex)
- Nerges Azizi (PhD migration researcher – moderation)
- Maham Hashmi (MSF)
- Iza Thaler (Slovenian Anti-Push backs Lawyer)
- Martina Marić
- Magda Qandil (borderline europe)
- Erik Marquardt (EU Parliamentarian)
- Carsten Gericke (ECCHR)
- Nicole Vögele (SRF Journalist & documentary filmmaker)
- Andrea Contenta (MSF)
INVISIBLE GAME
(K)eine Grenze
Idea and concept: David Stöhr, Matija Vlatković
Text: David Stöhr, Matija Vlatković, Ivan Vlatković, Vernesa Berbo
Director: David Stöhr
Dramaturg: Matija Vlatković
Stage and Costume Designer: Saskia Göldner
Music and Composition: Ameli Paul (Franziska Ameli Schuster, Paul Valentin Kimmelmann)
Video: Sébastien Dupouey
Light Deseign: Asli Atasoy Öner
Choreographer: Evelin Facchini
Producer:Michiko Günther
Assistant Director: Maja Zećo
Assistant Dramaturg: Ivan Vlatković
Assistant Stage and Costume: Nikola Čiča
Assistant Production: Nika Nardelli
Intern Stage and Costume: Tamara Paulinyova
with: Javeh Asefdjah, Vernesa Berbo, Murat Seven, Luka Vlatković
Special gratitude extended to Nicole Vögele and Jack Sapoch for supporting us in the development of the play as well as for providing us with insightful thoughts and material of their research.
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