An extraordinary piece of experimental theatre born of one of the world’s great ongoing tragedies, this documentary-style work by Milo RAU may yet even affect reality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

With killings and ethnic conflicts continuing in that vast country where wars raged from 1996–2003, the 42-year-old Swiss director is again using drama to shed light on what’s really happening. This time, though — unlike his 2011 play “Hate Radio” about 1994’s Rwandan genocide (a masterpiece staged in the World Theatre Festival Shizuoka 2013) — he addresses the Congo situation through a mock court he set up there and filmed as residents near the site of a massacre, along with survivors, offenders, lawyers and ordinary citizens, told their stories. Although RAU’s film carries no formal weight, its many showings across the country are helping to fuel calls for legal accountability for such crimes — calls likely to be echoed here, too, when Shizuoka audiences get to see “The Congo Tribunal.”

More than 6 million people died in the second Congo War from 1998–2003, and to this day the killing goes on. During one of his visits to the country, RAU went to the site of a massacre for which no one has ever been put on trial. As a result, he decided to use theatre to create a mock court to examine the situation. However, he didn’t just invite local people to attend, but also the governor of the state, the Minister of Home Affairs, a lawyer for an international mining company, human rights judges and one from the International Criminal Court. Afterwards, RAU staged and filmed the mock court again in Berlin. In the course of these proceedings he staged, RAU’s “The Congo Tribunal” gradually reveals the true reasons for the massacres, their links to land sales to international companies, and to environmental pollution.

INVESTIGATOR-IN-CHARGE: Sylvestre BISIMWA
CHAIRMAN OF THE TRIBUNAL: Jean-Louis GILISSEN
JURY BUKAVU:Vénantie Bishimwa NABINTU, Colette BRAECKMAN, Gilbert KALINDA, Prince KIHANGI, Séverin MUGANGU, Jean ZIEGLER
JURY BERLIN: Colette BRAECKMAN, Saran Kaba JONES, Wolfang KALECK, Saskia SASSEN, Marc-Antoine Vumilia MUHINDO, Harald WELZER
and many more.

Written and directed by Milo RAU
Director of photography: Thomas SCHNEIDER
Dramaturgy and editing: Katja DRINGENBERG
Research and casting: Eva-Maria BERTSCHY
Sound: Marco TEUFEN, Jens BAUDISCH
Music: Marcel VAID
Sound design & mixing: Guido KELLER
Creative producer: Sebastian LEMKE
Producers: Arne BIRKENSTOCK, Olivier ZOBRIST

Subtitle translation: HIRANO Akihito

Production: Fruitmarket Arts & Media GmbH, Langfilm/ Bernard Lang AG

Co-production: IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, SRG SSR and ZDF in collaboration with ARTE

Film supported by Film-und Medienstiftung NRW, Bundesamt für Kultur (BAK) Schweiz, BKM-Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Kanton St.Gallen Kultur-förderung-Swisslos, Zürcher Filmstiftung, DFFF-Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Migros-Kulturprozent, Volkart Stiftung

Please refrain from taking infants to the ordinary seats.