Erwin Aljukić: Performance – We Will Build a New City / Seize the Film
Straight out of Munich, the German actor Erwin Aljukić is coming here as part of the Other? Europe programme arch.
We will experience his performance ‘We Will Build a New City’ on 12 October from 6 p.m. at the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad as part of the opening ceremony of the film programme ‘Seize the Film’.
The performance ‘We Will Build a New City’ was based on the play Wir werden mutig gewesen sein, which was performed at the National Theatre Darmstadt. Live, only at the film programme of the Other? Europe, Erwin will perform part of his role from this play.
Through art, he will remind us that each of us has the strength and power to change ourselves and the society around us – to build a new and better future for everyone. After the performance, the audience will have the opportunity to attend a conversation with Erwin about art and activism.
‘I am homosexual, I have a disability, my parents come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, our family is Muslim, and thus I unite very contradictory positions,’ Erwin, who was born and raised in Germany, described himself.
Erwin is an actor, performer, activist and member of the European Film Academy. For many years he starred in the German series Marienhof, and he also played in the film Wo ist Fred with the well-known Til Schweiger. The audience at the Seize the Film festival knows him from the film Colleagues, which won the award for Film That Changes Perspectives in 2016. He acted in several German theatres, from 2018 to 2020 he was a permanent member of the ensemble of the National Theatre in Darmstadt, and he is currently a permanent member of the ensemble of the Munich Chamber Theater. He also actively dances.
Erwin is also a public advocate for the rights of actors with disabilities and gay artists in Germany. He is part of the Actout campaign for greater visibility of LGBTQ+ professional actors in Germany.
‘For years, I suffered from being judged time and time again purely based on my looks, when that’s not the only thing that makes me; I’m so much more than that. I am a minority within a minority,’ says Erwin.
While we eagerly await all that Erwin really is, take a look at some of his roles.
Seize the Film is the only regional film festival on the theme of disability. For 20 years, it has been successfully held in Novi Sad and organised by KAO Parnas. Since 2011 it is also being held in Rijeka, under the organisation of Spirit Association, and since 2017 in Banja Luka as well, under the leadership of the humanitarian organisation Partner, and in Kotor helped by ART 365 from Podgorica.
This year’s 20th ‘Seize the Film’ is the most accessible film festival in the region, as it is accessible to people with physical disabilities, the blind and the deaf. The goal of the festival is the affirmation of domestic and foreign feature, documentary, and animated films, whose actors are persons with disabilities, as well as the promotion of opportunities and challenges for persons with disabilities (with special reference to groups that are marginalised in more ways) through art.
You can find the detailed programme of the 20th ‘Seize the Film’ on the festival’s website.
Photo: Dennis König