Milo Rau / IIPM
HATE RADIO
29 November 2015 h. 21.00
Hate Radio (Switzerland/Germany 2011) tells the story of RTLM/Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, a Rwandan radio station that played a crucial role in Rwanda’s genocide of the Tutsi minority in 1994.
On 6 April 1994, Rwandan President Habyaruman’s plane was hit by two missiles during take-off. This event marked the beginning of the most brutal genocide since the end of the Cold War.
In the months of April, May and June 1994, the estimated death toll in Rwanda among the Tutsi minority ranged from 800,000 to 1,000,000, and thousands were killed among the moderate Hutus.
The most powerful weapon used during the genocide was the “Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Col-lines” (RTLM). With inexplicable cynicism, the operators of the radio station cultivated and prepared for the genocide for months, integrating music, sports, political communiqués and genuine incitements to murder into their programming.
How does the process of establishing racist ideology work? How is it possible to purge the individual of his humanity?
Director Milo Rau’s work uses documents and direct testimony from members of the Hutu ethnic group and survivors of the genocide itself to answer these questions, letting people experience first-hand what happened in the history of Rwanda.
French with Italian subtitles, duration 65 min.
Admission: € 5,00
Screenplay and direction: Milo Rau; dramaturgy and conceptual management: Jens Dietrich; set design and costumes: Anton Lukas; video: Marcel Bächtiger; sound: Jens Baudisch; video cast: Estelle Marion, Nancy Nkusi; assistant director: Mascha Euchner-Martinez; production and dramaturgy manager: Milena Kipfmüller; public relations: Yven Augustin; scientific collaboration: Eva-Maria Bertschy. “Hate Radio” is a production of IIPM – International Institut for Political Murder Berlin/Zürich with Migros-Kulturprozent Schweiz, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) Berlin, Schlachthaus Theater Bern, Beursschouwburg Brüssel, migros museum für gegenwartskunst Zürich, Kaserne Basel, Südpol Luzern, Verbrecher Verlag Berlin, Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre and Ishyo Arts Centre Kigali. Supported by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds (HKF), Migros-Kulturprozent Schweiz, Pro Helvetia – Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Kulturelles.bl (Basel), Bildungs- und Kulturdepartement des Kantons Luzern, Amt für Kultur St. Gallen, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung, Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F. V. S., GGG Basel, Goethe- Institut Brüssel, Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, Brussels Airlines, Spacial Solutions, Commission Nationale de Lutte contre le Génocide (CNLG), Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED), Contact FM Kigali, IBUKA Rwanda (Dachorganisation der Opferverbände des Genozids in Rwanda) and the Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB), Friede Springer Stiftung.
Milo Rau – 1977, Bern, Switzerland. Director and playwright, he studied sociology, Germanistics and Romanistics in Paris, Zurich and Berlin, attending lectures by, among others, Tzvetan Todorov and Pierre Bourdieu. He began writing international reportage in 1997, travelling to Ciapas and Cuba. From 2000 he worked for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and from 2003 he began his career as a director and author in Switzerland and abroad. In 2007 Rau founded the IIPM (International Institute of Political Murder), the theatre and film production centre with which he still produces all his work today. In addition to his theatre and film work, Milo Rau lectures on directing and cultural theory at several universities. His theatre and film works are based on long and meticulous research in the field, sometimes they are full-fledged cultural and social campaigns (e.g. “Montana”, “The Last Hours of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu”, “Hate Radio”, “City of Change”, “Breivik’s Statement”, “The Moscow Trials”, “The Zurich Trials”, “The Civil Wars”, “The Dark Ages” and “The Congo Tribunal”). They have been invited to more than thirty different countries around the world and hosted by some of the most important festivals and centres worldwide, including Berliner Theatertreffen, Avignon Festival, Theaterspektakel Zürich, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen, Festival TransAmeriques, Wiener Festwochen, Kunstenfestival Brussels, Santarcangelo Festival, Terni Festival, Venice Biennale. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Swiss Theatre Price, the Best Radio Drama Award of the Association of the War Blind (for “Hate Radio”), the Special Jury Prize of the German Film Festival (for “The Moscow Trials”) and the Grand Jury Prize of the Triennial German Theatre Festival “Politik im Freien Theater” (for “The Civil Wars”). His philosophical essay “What is to be done. Critique of the Postmodern Reason” (2013) became a bestseller and was nominated “Best Political Essay of the Year”.