THE HANDKE PROJECT

From: Jeton Neziraj; Directed by: Blerta Neziraj
Actors: Arben Bajraktaraj, Adrian Morina, Ejla Bavčić, Anja Drljević, Verona Koxha, Klaus Martini

For the show:
Through the lens of the controversial Nobel laureate for literature, Peter Handke, a pan-European ensemble navigates the delicate balance between freedom of expression and social responsibility in theatre.

The Handke Project is a theatrical performance for the writer who, with his books and attitudes, fabricated and overturned the facts of the wars in the former Yugoslavia; has promoted and supported the "scorched earth" ideology, as well as praised poets and militant filmmakers, converted into "engineers of genocidal projects". At the funeral of the criminal Milosevic, Handke told the bloodthirsty crowd that he "doesn't know the truth" and that is why he is "here near Milosevic, near Serbia". Handke compared the suffering of the Serbs to the suffering of the Jews during Nazism!

Artists from Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, North Macedonia, France, Montenegro and Germany discuss and treat 'Peter's nonsense', in the light of the war in Ukraine and at a time when many cultural institutions in Europe is asking Russian artists to publicly express their views on the war in Ukraine. A red line is being drawn against all those Russian artists who in one way or another are supporters of Putin and the war.

Meanwhile, Handke and the European handkists continue to ride free, even over the 8 thousand graves of those killed in Srebrenica. Therefore, as Eric Gordy has beautifully said: Handke is kitsch! But even the Nobel for him is kitsch. And even Handke's supporters are kitsch. European hypocrisy is also kitsch.