After performance talk with the actors

Milo Rau (born January 25, 1977) is a Swiss theater and film director, journalist, essayist, and lecturer. Rau studied sociology, German and Roman studies in Paris, Zurich, and Berlin under Tzvetan Todorov and Pierre Bourdieu, among others. In 2007, Rau founded the theater and film production company International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) which he has been running ever since. His productions, campaigns and films ("Montana“, "The Last Days of the Ceausescus“, "Hate Radio“, "City of Change“, "The Moscow Trials“, "The Zurich Trials“, "The Civil Wars“, "The Dark Ages“) have been invited to some of the biggest national and international festivals, including the Festival d’Avignon, the Berliner Theatertreffen, and the Kunstenfestival Brussels. The Belgian newspaper "La Libre Belgique" recently named him one of Europe’s "most sought-after directors", with the German weekly "Der Freitag" describing him as “the most controversial theater director of his generation”. In 2014 he won the first Swiss Theater Award, the prestigious Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden (for "Hate Radio"), the Jury Price at the Festival Politik im Freien Theater (for "The Civil Wars“), and the Special Price at the German Film Festival (for "The Moscow Trials").

The International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) was founded by the Swiss theater and film director Milo Rau in 2007 and got soon internationally acclaimed for its unique, dense documentary form of political theater with a special focus on multimedia adaptation of historical or social conflicts. The theater/film project "The last days of the Ceausescus“ (2009/10) re-enacted the show trial against the Rumanian dictator couple Ceausescu while the theater project „Hate Radio (2011) focused on the role of the broadcasting station RTLM in the genocide in Ruanda 1994 and "The Civil Wars“ (2014) reflected on the premises of revolt and political engagement along the personal biographies of the actors. With “The Moscow Trials” and “The Zurich Trials” (both 2013) Milo Rau developed the model of theatrical trials: While in Moscow artists and curators fought for the freedom of art that was refused by the real courts, in Zurich a right-wing was accused of racial discrimination. In 2015 the IIPM continued with this approach by reprocessing of the civil wars in Congo.