Europa

"You will now listen to my voice. My voice will help you and guide you still deeper into Europa. I shall now count from one to ten. On the count of ten, you will be in Europa.”
(from Lars von Trier’s film Europa)

Eccentric Danish director Lars von Trier’s masterpiece Europa (1991) comes to life through the eyes of Kostas Papakostopoulos, distinguished director, founder and artistic director of the German-Greek Theatre of Cologne, which celebrates this year its 30th anniversary.

The film is an allegorical journey to the strenuous efforts to build a new Europe from the ashes of its violent past. In the film’s theatrical adaptation a modern-day citizen taking the same journey arrives in post-war Germany. He is enchanted by unexpected meetings and tormented by painful memories, which will lead him to put his values to the test and, in the end, reject them.

Herbert Mitschke’s music and John Seidler’s black and white videos create an evocative Kafkaesque atmosphere in this nightmare journey to Europe’s history. In a time of increasingly bigger disputes, controversies and doubts about the future of the European Union, the director borrows Lars von Trier’s motifs to bring out through Europe’s violent past the dangers lurking in its future.

Τhe international production of Εuropa and its presentation in Greece and Germany is supported through a Stavros Niarchos Foundation grant to the Deutsch Griechisches Theatre