Afsaneh Mahian, Naghmeh Samini: Das Kind

Wiener Festwochen

Three women are being interrogated at Europe’s high-security border. A Yazidi woman from Iraq who has fled the Islamic State; an Afghan woman who managed to escape her violent husband; and a Libyan woman whose life thus far has been defined by poverty, hunger and sexual assault. And then there is the newborn child. None of the three women admits to being its mother so that, even in the event of their deportation, the child will be allowed to remain in Europe. The exchanges between the official and those interrogated are heated, and all the while an interpreter tries to mediate. In the production by Iranian director Afsaneh Mahian, who last featured on the programme of the Wiener Festwochen in 2016 with "A Bit More Every­day", all three women are played by the international award-winning actor Fatemeh Motamed-Arya. Her performance, played out on a track of sand laid out between the auditorium stands, is nothing if not spellbinding.