Vor dem Fest

The village of Fürstenfelde in the German Uckermark-region becomes the setting for a series of eccentric and poetic stories. There are more deaths here than new arrivals and if you can, you should probably try your luck elsewhere. Those who have stuck around hang out in Ulli’s garage, where a beer is 80 cents, and tell stories about former times. But the night before the Feast of Saint Anne turns out to be anything but quiet: Bells disappear, someone breaks into the village archive, a car ends up in the lake, Mrs Schwermut snaps and Mr Schramm, a former colonel in the GDR’s National People’s Army, finds himself in a dialogue with his gun. With love and tenderness, Saša Stanišić, winner of the German Book Award, outlines the biography of a village and the people who live there: sad and touching, strong and lost. Insomniacs in the rapture of the night.
Lars-Ole Walburg was Artistic Director of Schauspiel Hannover from 2009 and 2018. Now he returns as the director of his own adaption of Saša Stanišić’s village cosmos that ranges from tragicomedy to self-irony.